"Summer Stars" by Carl Sandburg uses epistrophe as its chief poetic device.
Epistrophe (ἐπιστροφή, "return"), also known as epiphora (and occasionally as antistrophe), is a figure of speech and the counterpart of anaphora. It is the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences. It is an extremely emphatic device because of the emphasis placed on the last word in a phrase or sentence.
Epistrophe in poetry=[]
In poetry, epistrophe refers to the use of repetition at the ends of lines; a good name for a technique every poet should be aware of. It combines 2 important principles:
- Repetition is the most effective way of linking ideas, phrases, or lines, even more so than perfect rhyme. It's an easy technique to pick up, and can be so effective, that writers need to beware of relying on it or using it too often; unvarying repetition can easily turn monotonous, and using a word repeatedly robs it of some of its power each time, turning it with overuse into mere filler.
- The end of a line gets the most attention; while the eyes move back to the other side of the page, the last word stays in the mind a bit longer than normal. That is an important consideration for free verse poets deciding where to break their lines.
Examples[]
- Where affections bear rule, there reason is subdued, honesty is subdued, good will is subdued, and all things else that withstand evil, for ever are subdued. — Thomas Wilson
- ... this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. — Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address
- When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. — 1 Cor 13:11 (King James Translation)
- Senator Mike Mansfield's funeral oration for John F. Kennedy used the phrase "And she took a ring from her finger and placed it in his hands" 5 times.
- "Epistrophy," a Thelonious Monk tune that uses an epistrophe of notes.
- "There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem." Lyndon B. Johnson in We Shall Overcome.
- "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Hourly joys be still upon you!
Juno sings her blessings on you. [. . .]
Scarcity and want shall shun you,
Ceres' blessing so is on you."
— Shakespeare, The Tempest (4.1.108-109; 116-17)
See also[]
External links[]
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