Anaphora is a rhetorical device that repeats words or phrases at the beginning of sentences to create intensity or emphasis. It must meet two requirements and is only successful in specific situations. Inexperienced use can lead to dull writing, but skilled use can create dramatic effects, as seen in FDR’s Pearl Harbor speech.
Meaning “brought again” in Ancient Greek, the anaphora is a rhetorical device that uses the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of sentences to create a specific mood or emphasize a point. Often seen in poetry, anaphora is also used with success in prose. When used right, this device can create astonishing intensity to a job. Misused or accidentally used, however, this device tends to create boring and repetitive passages.
Anaphora has two stringent requirements. First, the repeated word or phrase must come at the beginning of the sentences. Second, the word or phrase must appear in consecutive sentences. If sentences are repeated at the end of consecutive sentences, rather than at the beginning, the writer uses another rhetorical device, called an epistrophe. While it can technically be used at any time, the anaphora is only successful when used in specific situations where the desired outcome is of dramatic effect.
Often inexperienced or careless writers will inappropriately or accidentally use the anaphora. This leads to repetitive or lackluster writing. For example, the sentences “Kim went downstairs. Kim went to the kitchen. Kim poured herself a cup of coffee,” satisfies the requirements for the anaphora. However, they don’t have a dramatic effect. Instead, the technique inhibits flow and simply makes the information dull and repetitive, particularly when confronted with the sentence, “Kim went downstairs, she went to the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee.”
When a skilled writer uses anaphora, however, the effects can be very dramatic. In Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1941 Pearl Harbor speech, the then president used the anaphora to emphasize the scale of the Japanese attack: “Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.”
While it would have been more concise to say “Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippine Islands, and Wake Island,” listing all four locations in the same sentence doesn’t have the same impact. Using the anaphora, Roosevelt created an intensity appropriate to the situation. Once listeners learned of the attack in Hong Kong, they might have assumed that the second sentence would not have listed another attack. Then their initial shock at the first attack repeated with the second, and so on. Repetition of “last night” confirmed that these attacks occurred in just one night, repetition of “Japanese forces” clarified who the enemy was in this case, and repetition of the word “attacked” reinforced the idea that the actor was, in fact, an enemy.
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