Repetition is a common component of poetry used to achieve different purposes, such as emphasizing a point or making a poem easier to memorize. It can also refer to the repetition of specific sounds to produce effects like alliteration or rhyme. Repetition can be used on a larger scale to bring unity to a collection of poems. Before writing, repetition made poems easier to memorize and emphasized important points.
Repetition is a common component of poetry and can appear as a single word or phrase used in a poem or as an entire stanza reused repeatedly. Different poets have used repetition in poetry to achieve many different purposes, ranging from emphasizing a particular point to making a poem easier to memorize. It is often used to supplement or even replace some formal components of poetry, such as meter and rhyme. Repetition can also refer to the repetition of specific sounds to produce particular effects, such as alliteration or rhyme. Many poets focus on the sound and rhythm of their poems at least as much as on the meanings, so repetition is a powerful tool because it can be used to manipulate both.
One of the most common uses of repetition in poetry is to emphasize a particular word or phrase for purposes such as drawing attention to a particular theme or pointing out conflicting uses of a given word. The degree to which repetition is used varies widely. Some poems repeat the same word or phrase in every single line while others repeat it only in a few stanzas or only twice in the entire poem. Repetition can even transcend the bounds of a single poem. Poets often publish books of their poems and repetition can be used throughout their poems to bring a sense of unity and cohesion to the collection.
On a smaller scale, repetition can refer to the repetition of particular sounds. Repeated sounds are used to produce rhymes, which are very common in many different forms of poetry. Some poets choose to favor a certain subset of sounds throughout an entire poem to create or avoid a certain effect, often so that the form matches the meaning. Repetition in poetry about love and comfort, for example, may involve favoring soft, gentle sounds while avoiding harder or harsher sounds, such as those produced by a hard “k” or “g.”
Before physical writing became a widespread practice, important poems were often passed down through oral tradition. Repetition made such poems much easier to memorize, as the repeated segments could be used to measure progress through the poem and were, in their own right, easy to memorize. Many ancient epic poems and particularly other long poems are characterized by the presence of repeated sections. Repetition of this form in poetry often has the dual purpose of making it easier to memorize and adding emphasis to important points.
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