Poetry Hacks

Anaphora

What is it? Where a word or short phrase is repeated at the start of consecutive lines, sentences, or clauses. What effect does it usually have? Anaphora is a simple structuring device, like listing; it may create a sense of urgency and an assertive or insistent tone. What else should I look out for? Very often anaphora builds tension and may be used to create an emotional climax.

An example of how it works … ‘London’ by William Blake:

Marks of weakness, marks of woe

Here anaphora is used within a single line, implying that all the poet 'marks' (sees) in the streets of London are weakness and 'woe' (suffering) – nothing else – an effect heightened by the use of alliteration on 'w'.

Another example … ‘London’ by William Blake:

In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice: in every ban, The mind-forged manacles I hear

In this stanza, which follows straight after the example above, the poet gives examples of the 'weakness' and 'woe' he sees (a 'ban' is a curse). The word 'every' is repeated anaphorically to make the conclusion in the fourth line even more forceful: all of the suffering is caused by the people of London being mentally chained up ('manacled') – one of the key ideas of the poem.

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