Monday, November 27, 2023

ePanalePsis & Diacope

 ePanalePsis  (ep-uh-nuh-lep-sis)  bookends

Repeats a similar grouping of words at the beginning of a clause or  sentence and at the end of that same clause or sentence (with words intervening). 

The repeated words act as bookends.

๐ŸŒธ Blow winds and crack your cheeks! Rake, blow!   King Lear, William Shakespeare

๐ŸŒธ Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice.     Philippians 4:4

๐ŸŒธ The king is dead, long live the king!


The repeated words act as bookends, driving the point home.                                            

An epanalepsis does not have to be exactly alike.  In fact, epanalepsis can often benefit from having slightly different wording, as the slight change can make it feel more natural and less calculated.   

An epanalepsis It does not have to be identical. It must be extremely close in meaning though.                                

๐ŸŒธ No matter where I end up, I never seem to feel any different or any better—no matter where I land.  

It can also be within a longer sentence.            

๐ŸŒธ He smiled the most exquisite smile, veiled by memory, tinged by dreams. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf   

A good mnemonic for epanalepsis is to remember that "p" appears toward the beginning of the word, and is repeated again at the end (ePanalePsis).

Is it an epanalepsis ⇧ or a diacope⇩?  An epanalepsis and a diacope both have repetition, but the diacope doesn't vary in form the way the epanalepsis can. With a diacope, the same initial word or phrase is repeated after a short number of intervening words. 

Diacope is from the Greek meaning “cut in two.”  It is similar to an epanalepsis.
In the epanalepsis, the repeated words are at the beginning and end of a sentence. In a diacope the repetition of a word or phrase broken up by another word or words.  It is "a verbal sandwich."   Ever heard, “Bond, James Bond”?  This James Bond line is the ultimate example of how this simple OWL, the diacope/epanalepsis, is remarkably effective.
Diacopes (close to an epizeuxis except there is a break  between repeated words /phrases):                                                ๐ŸŒธ Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.  ~Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina,  1877                                                                                
๐ŸŒธ “They will laugh, indeed they will laugh, at his parchment and his wax.” ~Edmund Burke, 1796
Here are examples that are both diacope AND epanalepsis:

๐ŸŒธ Justice—that’s all I ask—justice.”  ~Denzel Washington in The Hurricane (1999)                                                                                                                                                                           ๐ŸŒธ Always Low Prices. Always     WalMart slogan                                                                              

๐ŸŒธ Run, Forrest, run

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