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• Literary Terms
• Definition & Examples
• When & How to Use Repetition

I. What is Repetition?

Quite simply, repetition is the repeating of a word or phrase. It is a common rhetorical device used to add emphasis and stress in writing and speech. Repetition is widely used in both poetry and prose; throughout all genres and forms of literature and oral tradition. Aside from helping stress or highlight important thoughts and points, repetition can be a key tool for authors and speakers in developing style, tone, and rhythm.

II. Example of Repetition

Read the short passage below:

The big stairs led up to a big house with a big front door. Breathe, breathe, breathe, I told myself. I only have to stay for one second, be afraid for one second, not scream for one second. I can do it. I can win the bet. I can prove I’m brave.

The passage above uses several different styles of repetition to show the narrator’s anxiety. By repeating what the character thinks and sees, the author makes the situation more interesting.

III. Common Types of Repetition

There are many types of repetition in rhetoric, but below are some of the most common.

a. Epizeuxis

Epizeuxis is the repetition of a word in sequence. For example, “ Why , why , why ?!”

b. Anaphora

Anaphora is the repetition of a word at the beginning of each phrase or clause. For example, “She looked to the left, she looked to the right, she looked straight ahead.”

c. Mesodiplosis

Mesodiplosis is the repetition of a word in the middle of each phrase or clause. For example, “One, but not two; three, but not four; five, but not six.”

d. Epistrophe

Epistrophe is the repetition of a word at the end of each phrase or clause. For example, “Every day I’m happy because you love me , I’m more fulfilled because you love me , I have everything because you love me .”

IV. Importance of Repetition

Repetition is an important literary device because it allows a writer or speaker to place emphasis on things they choose as significant. It tells the reader or audience that the words being used are central enough to be repeated, and lets them know when to pay special attention to the language. Furthermore, repetition has historically been an important technique for oral tradition, as it helped storytellers remember details and lines that may have otherwise been difficult to repeat.

V. Examples in Literature

Celebrated classic children’s author Dr. Seuss frequently uses repetition in his quirky and eccentric stories. Below is a selection from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish that demonstrates Dr. Seuss’s well-known, one-of-a-kind style:

One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish, Black fish, Blue fish, Old fish, New fish. This one has a little car. This one has a little star. Say! What a lot of fish there are. Yes. Some are red, and some are blue. Some are old and some are new. Some are sad, and some are glad, And some are very, very bad.

Dr. Seuss uses a combination of repetition and rhyming to craft this catchy story that everyone knows. One of the reasons his books are so unique is that he makes use of several types of repetition, which together create a whimsical, silly sounding style.

In the famous opening to A Tale of Two Cities , Charles Dickens utilizes repetition to add stress and emphasis to the positives and negatives of the time.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—

Dickens’ famous words “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” remain some of the most celebrated lines in literature to this day. The way he repeats the phrase “it was” makes his words stronger, more memorable, more effective, and more convincing.

VI. Examples of Repetition in Pop Culture

Repetition is a very popular way of adding stress and power when delivering a speech. Throughout history, people have used repetition to make sure that their audiences will remember and repeat their phrases and ideas; for example Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”:

By repeating “I have a dream” throughout his speech, Martin Lurther King Jr. connects himself to these words and makes them stick in the audience’s minds.

In the classic romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally , Harry uses repetition to strengthen his grand New Year’s Eve speech to Sally:

By repeating the words “I love that…” over and over again, Harry is placing emphasis on the fact that he loves everything about Sally, good and bad. He repeats these words over and over with the hopes that she will realize that what he is saying is real and true, and that she will return his love.

VII. Related Terms

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds, which creates rhyme. For example, “ the black cat had the rat’s bag;” “how now brown cow?” “do you do voodoo?”

Consonance is the repetition of a consonant sound at the middle or end of a word. For example, “ the cook broke his back;” “the duck struck some luck.”

• Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of a word. For example, “Lucy lacked love,” “the sand sizzled under the strong sun;” “the fox fixed the fax.” Alliteration is perhaps the most used form of sound repetition. One of the most popular examples is Mother Goose’s well-known nursery rhyme—

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked; If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Oftentimes, writers use some combination of the three types of sound repetition. For instance, “Splish splash splish splash” uses assonance, consonance, and alliteration all at once.

List of Terms

• Amplification
• Anachronism
• Anthropomorphism
• Antonomasia
• APA Citation
• Aposiopesis
• Autobiography
• Bildungsroman
• Characterization
• Circumlocution
• Cliffhanger
• Comic Relief
• Connotation
• Deus ex machina
• Deuteragonist
• Doppelganger
• Double Entendre
• Dramatic irony
• Equivocation
• Extended Metaphor
• Figures of Speech
• Flash-forward
• Foreshadowing
• Intertextuality
• Juxtaposition
• Literary Device
• Malapropism
• Onomatopoeia
• Parallelism
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Personification
• Point of View
• Polysyndeton
• Protagonist
• Red Herring
• Rhetorical Device
• Rhetorical Question
• Science Fiction
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Synesthesia
• Turning Point
• Understatement
• Urban Legend
• Verisimilitude
• Essay Guide
• Cite This Website

Definition of Anaphora

Conversational anaphora examples, examples of anaphora in speech and writing, famous anaphora examples.

There is a season – turn, turn, turn And a time to every purpose under heaven A time to be born, a time to die A time to plant, a time to reap A time to kill, a time to heal A time to laugh, a time to weep

There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung Nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game It’s easy

You better watch out, You better not cry, You better not pout I’m telling you why

Difference Between Anaphora and Repetition

Writing anaphora.

Here are instances in which it’s effective to use anaphora in writing:

Evoke Emotion

Reinforce or emphasize a concept.

Anaphora is also an excellent rhetorical device for writers to reinforce or emphasize a concept. By repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences or phrases, the concept represented by that word or phrase is highlighted and brought to the foreground for the reader. Mark Twain utilizes this reinforcement and emphasis in his famous quote relating the size of a dog in a fight to the size of the fight in a dog (see #2 above). By emphasizing the impact of size through anaphora, Mark Twain is able to reinforce the concept that external, physical size is less influential to an outcome than intrinsic passion and motivation.

Create Urgency or Call to Action

Difference between anaphora and epistrophe / epiphora, use of anaphora in sentences, examples of anaphora in literature, example 1:  if you want the moon (rumi).

If you want the moon, do not hide from the night . If you want a rose, do not run from the thorns. If you want love, do not hide from yourself.

Example 2:  The Help  (Kathryn Stockett)

You is kind. You is smart . You is important.

Example 3: We Real Cool (Gwendolyn Brooks)

We Real Cool . We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.

In this poem , Brooks makes clever and dramatic use of anaphora with the repetition of “we.” However, the placement of this pronoun at the end of each line creates a visual as well as a lyrical effect for the reader. The subject , “we,” seems an afterthought, though it is grammatically the first word of each sentence in the poem. By making the subject secondary to the action, the reader’s focus is drawn towards the rhythm and pattern of the words describing what the subject is doing. This creates a dramatic effect for the last line, “die soon.” The anaphora, “we,” is absent in the last line. Therefore, the poem concludes with the figurative death of the subject and the literal death of the literary device.

Example 4: I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King

It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the colored America is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the colored American is still sadly crippled by the manacle of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the colored American lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the colored American is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

This passage shows the use of “One hundred years later…” used at the beginning of every sentence. Therefore, this is a good use of anaphor that shows its impacts on the audience of Martin Luther King. Some other significant anaphoras used in the speech are “ Now we cannot…”, “Go back…” and “I have a dream .”

Example 5: The Great Dictator by Charlie Chapline

Then – in the name of democracy – let us use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world – a decent world that will give men a chance to work – that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will!

Synonyms of Anaphora

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Literary Devices

Literary devices, terms, and elements, definition of repetition, different types of repetition, poetic forms that use repetition, repetition examples from literature.

But for now Anders can still make time. Time for the shadows to lengthen on the grass, time for the tethered dog to bark at the flying ball, time for the boy in right field to smack his sweat-blackened mitt and softly chant, They is, They is, They is .

This excerpt of Wolff’s “Bullet to the Brain” contains the final two lines of the short story. The types of repetition represented here are anadiplosis, anaphora, and epizeuxis. The protagonist of the story has been reflecting on a grammatical error he heard as a young boy, and now in the last few moments of his life the phrase keeps repeating itself in his head. The effect in the story is to mimic the protagonist’s thought pattern as his brain starts to shut down.

I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Hughes uses different types of repetition here, including anaphora and conduplicatio. The effect of repetition in this poem is to make the poem sound as though it’s coming from a storyteller.

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

How the danger sinks and swells, By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells, Of the bells, Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells— In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

This famous poem by Edgar Allen Poe features many different repetition examples, including epizeuxis, conduplicatio, and polyptoton. The word “bells” is repeated 62 times throughout the poem, often without words in between (epizeuxis). This particular type of repetition helps to make the poem sound much like the tolling of bells.

Test Your Knowledge in Repetition

1. Which repetition definition fits most aptly with the term anaphora? A.  A repeated word or phrase at the beginning of several lines. B.  A repeated word in the middle of every line or clause. C.  A repeated word at the end of every line or clause. [spoiler title=”Answer to Question #1″] Answer: A is correct.[/spoiler]

How the danger sinks and swells,— By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells

A.  A b C / d e F / g h I / j k L / m n O / p q R S B.  A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2 C.  A1 b C1 / d e A2 / f g C2 / h i A3 / j k C3 / l m A4 C4 [spoiler title=”Answer to Question #3″] Answer: B is correct. A and C don’t accurately express the rhyme structure.[/spoiler]

Definition of Repetition

Repetition is a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer and more memorable. There are several types of repetition commonly used in both prose and poetry.

As a rhetorical device, it could be a word, a phrase, or a full sentence, or a poetical line repeated to emphasize its significance in the entire text. Repetition is not distinguished solely as a figure of speech , but more as a rhetorical device.

Types of Repetition

The following examples of repetition are classified according to the different types of repetition used, both in literature and in daily conversations.

• Anadiplosis : Repetition of the last word in a line or clause.
• Anaphora : Repetition of words at the start of clauses or verses.
• Antistasis : Repetition of words or phrases in opposite sense.
• Diacope : Repetition of words broken by some other words.
• Epanalepsis : Repetition of the same words at the beginning and the end of a sentence.
• Epimone : Repetition of a phrase (usually a question) to stress a point.
• Epiphora : Repetition of the same word at the end of each clause.
• Gradatio : A construction in poetry wherein the last word of one clause becomes the first of the next, and so on.
• Negative-Positive Restatement : Repetition of an idea first in negative terms, and then in positive terms.
• Polyptoton : Repetition of words of the same root, with different endings.
• Symploce : A combination of anaphora and epiphora , in which repetition is both at the end and at the beginning.

Short Examples of Repetition in Poetry

• If you think you can do it , you can do it .
• The boy was a good footballer , because his father was a footballer , and his grandfather was a footballer .
• The bird said, “I don’t sing because I am happy , I am happy because I sing .”
• The politician declared, “ We will fight come what may, we will fight on all fronts, we will fight for a thousand years.”
• The judge commanded, stamping his mallet on the table, “ Order in the court , order in the court .”
• The refugees were crossing into the neighboring country when they saw blood all around — blood on the passageways, blood on the fields, blood on the
• When they came out of the cinema hall they all agreed, the film was a waste of money, it was a waste of time and energy.
• The boy was terrified when he was taken to the hospital; he shuddered at the least sound, and he shuddered at the least breath of air into the room.
• The president said, “ Work, work, and work ,” are the keys to success.
• The orator said, “ Good morning to the old, good morning to the young, good morning to each and every one present.”
• The team captain reiterated his resolve to win the match, win the tournament, and win the hearts of his people.
• The general said to his army, “Men — You must fight for the life of your people , your family , and your country .”
• The boss repeated his routine advice, “ Don’t come late, don’t leave early, and don’t delay your work.”
• The students chanted to raise the spirits of their team during the match, “ We will win , we will win .”
• The new boss says that, in this organization, the wrong person was appointed for the wrong job , following the wrong procedure , but this will not happen again.

Examples of Repetition in Literature

Example #1: one art (by elizabeth bishop).

“ The art of losing isn’t hard to master ; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster… Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn’t hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.”

In this example, the poet has repeatedly used the refraining line “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” throughout the poem . This refraining line creates rhythm , and emphasizes the idea. Notice that this line, however, varies slightly in the final stanza , yet is still considered to be a refrain .

Example #2: Annabel Lee (By Edgar Allan Poe)

“It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea , That a maiden there lived whom you may know … I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea , But we loved with a love that was more than love — I and my Annabel Lee …”

The poet is using the refraining line “In a kingdom by the sea.” This appears in the second line of each stanza , and recurs in the final line of the third stanza , drawing readers’ attention, and contributing to its meter and rhythm .

Example #3: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night (By Dylan Thomas)

“ Do not go gentle into that good night , Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light … And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night . Rage, rage against the dying of the light .”

This is very a famous poem using repetitions of the refrain , “Do not go gentle into that good night,” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” These refrains make the poem catchy and easy to remember.

Example #4: Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening (By Emily Dickinson)

“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep , And miles to go before I sleep .”

Frost has used a repeated refrain in only the last stanza , as he  utters, “And miles to go before I sleep.” It gives rhythm to the poem , and lays emphasis on this idea of doing many things before dying.

Example #5: Excelsior (By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

“The shades of night were falling fast… A banner with the strange device, Excelsior! There in the twilight cold and gray, Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay… A voice fell like a falling star, Excelsior! “

The poet makes use of refrain “Excelsior!” throughout the entire poem , creating rhythm and drawing the attention of readers.

Example #6: The Properly Scholarly Attitude (By Adelaide Crapsey)

“The poet pursues his beautiful theme ; The preacher his golden beatitude … Of the properly scholarly attitude — The highly desirable, the very advisable, The hardly acquirable, properly scholarly attitude .”

In this poem , Crapsey uses the refrain , “properly scholarly attitude ” to highlight the theme of being a poet having proper scholarly attitude .

Example #7: O Captain! My Captain! (By Walt Whitman)

“ O Captain ! my Captain ! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills…”

The poet uses refrain throughout this poem to emphasize the mournful theme . See the repetition of the words “captain,” “rise up,” and “for you” in just these two lines. This theme continues throughout.

Example #8: 1940 Speech to House of Commons (By Winston Churchill)

“ We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.”

This is a beautiful example of repetition in prose , where the speaker has repeated “we shall,” and “we shall fight” several times.

Example #9: I Have a Dream speech (By Martin Luther King, Jr.)

“ I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification – one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

In this famous speech by American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., he repeats the phrase “I have a dream” a number of times. This makes the speech very powerful and memorable.

Function of Repetition

Refrain is purely a poetic device, and the most important function that a refrain may serve in poetry is to lay emphasis and create rhythm . When a line or phrase recurs in a poem , or a piece of literature, it becomes noticeable to the readers. By using refrain , poets can make their ideas memorable, and draw the attention of readers toward a certain idea. This is done by using a single line recurrently throughout a poetic work, allowing readers to take a pause each time they come upon such repetition.

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17 Fantastic Repetition Examples in Literature

The governing wisdom about writing sentences says not to repeat. Repetition is bad. Repetition is sloppy. Writers are encouraged to consult a thesaurus and change up that pesky offending word.

But is this really true?

Literature is full of repetition. Literary writers constantly use the literary device of repeated words. I think the only type of repetition which is bad is sloppy repetition. Repetition which is unintentional, which sounds awkward.

If you repeat on purpose, repetition is gorgeous.

I mean, think about music. Music is all about repetition and patterns. If you didn’t have repetition in music, it would all just be noise.

Please study the repetition examples below, which are mostly figures of speech, to learn how to repeat well. Here are a few more tips:

• The repeated word has to evolve in some way. Every time it’s repeated, it’s the same word but in a different context, and by the end of the sentence we should be seeing that word in an entirely different light.
• Or: it has to be funny. Sometimes repeated words can just be funny, simply because you keep repeating them. Think about how many jokes rely on repetition.

And once you learn the skill of repetition, you’ll be ready for my advice on how to write a novel .

Even if you’re a beginner, this post “12 Steps to Writing a Bestseller” will guide you through the process of novel writing.

Repetition Examples:

1. “Nory was a Catholic because her mother was a Catholic, and Nory’s mother was a Catholic because her father was a Catholic, and her father was a Catholic because his mother was a Catholic, or had been.”

– Nicholson Baker, The Everlasting Story of Nory

Six repetitions in this sentence! Catholic is repeated six times, and by the end, it’s actually funny. That’s really important about repetition — it’s essential for humor.

So many jokes rely upon repeating the same word in different ways. In fact, in the stand-up comedy world, there’s a term for it: A Callback . It’s when you reference a joke that you made earlier in a new context, and through that repetition it’s funny in a whole new way.

But what makes this sentence great is the ending. Those last three words, which break the tense of the previous 6 verbs (was, was, was, was …) and then “had been.” Ha! The father was a Catholic simply because his mother was formerly a Catholic.

2. “I felt happy because I saw the others were happy and because I knew I should feel happy, but I wasn’t really happy.”

– Roberto Bolano, 2666

Four repetitions of the word “happy.” But every time the word is functioning in different ways.

• He feels happy.
• Others feel happy
• He is being forced into happiness (is he actually happy?)
• The truth: He is actually not happy at all

This sentence is also a great example of a sentence that starts in one place and ends in another. We start with the belief in the narrator’s happiness, but by the end, we are surprised to find that he only feels like he should be happy rather than actually feeling true happiness. The sentence has been a journey that has taken us somewhere, from a stated truth to reversing that truth.

3. “But good morning! Good morning to ye and thou! I’d say to all my patients, because I was the worse of the hypocrites, of all the hypocrites, the cruel and phony hypocrites, I was the very worst.”

– Joshua Ferris, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

What’s great about this repetition example is that it’s a loose palindrome .

There is a “worse” followed by 3 examples of “hypocrites” followed by another “worst.”

If you just took those five words, they would read the same forwards as backwards. You might say that “worse” is not the same as “worst,” and yes, that’s a small difference, but repetition doesn’t have to be exact for it to work on the reader.

4. “So I said yes to Thomas Clinton and later thought that I had said yes to God and later still realized I had said yes only to Thomas Clinton.”

– Ann Patchett, The Patron Saint of Liars

Is this about sex? About marriage? In any case, this is a perfect hourglass shape: an identical beginning and end with an interlude in the middle.

Once again, this sentence shows us the journey of a narrator that starts thinking one thing, changes her mind, only to change back to what she originally thought.

By repeating “yes” again and again, Patchett references the most famous case of repetition in literature: the end of Ulysses by James Joyce, which is definitely about sex:

“… then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.”

5. “Even if they are djinns, I will get djinns that can outdjinn them.”

– Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Wizard of the Crow

What an awesome sentence. Isn’t djinn an awesome word? Especially with the made-up word of “outdjinn”? And that’s how the repetitions evolve in this sentence: through a coinage of a new word that plays upon the repeated word.

6. “Hatred was spreading everywhere, blood was being spilled everywhere, wars were breaking out everywhere.”

– Shusaku Endo, Deep River

This is an example of epistrophe , which is literary trope where the same word is repeated at the end of every phrase (the opposite of this is anaphora, where the same word is repeated at the beginning of every phrase).

By repeating everywhere three times, Endo holds the whole of the sentence together and gives it shape and rhythm.

7. “Almost nothing was more annoying than having our wasted time wasted on something not worth wasting it on.”

– Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End

Ferris is writing about the drudgery of working in a corporate office, and wasted time had to be at the front of his concerns. I love that repeated phrase “wasted time wasted.” As if the time was already wasted, but it was going to be wasted again by spending it on non-worthwhile projects.

This basically sounds like every corporate meeting that has ever occurred.

8. “The depressed person was in terrible and unceasing emotional pain, and the impossibility of sharing or articulating this pain was itself a component of the pain and a contributing factor in its essential horror.”

– David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

How perfect in a sentence about depression that Wallace would repeat “pain” three times. It’s almost as if he’s trying to drill pain into the reader’s brain by repetition, as if he wants you to truly feel the pain of depression that he’s trying to communicate.

Which is exactly what he’s accomplishing, because the thrust of this sentence is that non-depressed people can’t understand the pain of depressed people. Unless … this sentence can somehow pound it into them: pain, pain, pain.

9. “Paranoids are not paranoid because they’re paranoid, but because they keep putting themselves, fucking idiots, deliberately into paranoid situations.”

– Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow

You should have laughed at this sentence. Because Pynchon is normally funny, and here he’s being hilarious.

As if the problem with paranoids was not in their brains, but with the external world.

The bonus is that one of Pynchon’s main themes is paranoia — it’s what most of his books focus on — and so he sure knows about the logic of paranoia.

10. “Because the world is a place of silence, the sky at night when the birds have gone is a vast silent place.”

– Colm Toibin, The Testament of Mary

Just two repetitions here, and not exact ones: silence and silent. This sentence works like an echo : the first part is a grand description of the silence of the world, while the second part is a specific description of the silence of birds.

11. “There are some things that are so unforgivable that they make other things easily forgivable.”

– Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun

Here is repetition built upon opposites: unforgivable and forgivable.

Here’s a sentence challenge: try to write a sentence that flip-flops between opposite words multiple times. For instance, use unforgivable twice and forgivable twice, showing the back and forth of the narrator.

12. “I had known loneliness before, and emptiness upon the moor, but I had never been a NOTHING, a nothing floating on a nothing, known by nothing, lonelier and colder than the space between the stars.”

– Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America

This is the loneliest sentence of all time. Like David Foster Wallace, he chooses a word that accents his thematic word of loneliness, rather than loneliness itself.

Because if he repeated loneliness, it wouldn’t be as powerful as actually making you feel lonely, which is what he does by repeating the word “NOTHING.”

“Nothing” is a word that actually makes you feel lonely. Four punches of this word and you as a reader feel like you’ve been knocked out. It’s one of the most powerful repetition examples on this page.

13. “You’re an insomniac, you tell yourself: there are profound truths revealed only to the insomniac by night like those phosphorescent minerals veined and glimmering in the dark but coarse and ordinary otherwise; you have to examine such minerals in the absence of light to discover their beauty, you tell yourself.”

– Joyce Carol Oates, Small Avalanches and Other Stories

Most of the repetition we’ve looked at so far has been word repetition, and so here’s a phrase repetition.

“You tell yourself.” These three words, when they appear first, are rather innocuous. It’s something this person says to herself. But when it’s repeated a second time, as a coda to the sentence, it takes on an entirely new meaning: this is an example of self-deception.

The narrator is telling herself something that isn’t true. The insomnia is likely hurting her, and she only believes it is helping her to avoid further pain.

For someone of Oates prodigious output, it’s surprising she doesn’t repeat more (that’s a bad attempt at a literary repetition joke. I apologize).

14. “Every person had a star, every star had a friend, and for every person carrying a star there was someone else who reflected it, and everyone carried this reflection like a secret confidante in the heart.”

– Orhan Pamuk, Snow

A couple different repetitions here. Star is repeated three times. Person is repeated twice and reflected/reflection is repeated twice.

But when you read it, it doesn’t seem redundant in any way. That’s because redundancy is unnecessary repetition, while beautiful repetition is exactly what the sentence needs.

15. “As my grandfather went, arm over arm, his heart making sour little shudders against his ribs, he kept listening for a sound, the sound of the tiger, the sound of anything but his own feet and lungs.”

– Tea Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife

We have an early repetition example with “arm over arm,” but the true repetition comes in the triple phrase at the end. It’s an example of anaphora , with a word being repeated at the beginning of phrases.

But my favorite part of the sentence is the “sour little shudders” of the heart.

16. “She was young the way an actual young person is young.”

– Nell Zink, The Wallcreeper

You’re looking for a metaphor here. She was young in the way … of something. And Zink resists that. She pushes pie in the face of a metaphor.

She’s going to deflate all your expectations and say that there’s only one way to be young: to be an actual young person.

This is why Zink is one of the funniest, zaniest writers out there.

17. “No heart is so hard as the timid heart.”

– Norman Mailer, The Gospel According to the Son

Here we have a bit of a paradox. You wouldn’t think a timid heart would be a hard heart. By the second repetition of “heart,” Mailer has reversed your expectations of the sentence.

Do you have examples of repetition in literature? I’d love to read them in the comments below!

If you want more repetition examples or just plain amazing sentences, check out my post on 100 Beautiful Sentences or my course on how to write a splendid sentence .

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Assonance Definition

What is assonance? Here's a quick and simple definition:

Assonance is a figure of speech in which the same vowel sound repeats within a group of words. An example of assonance is: "Wh o gave N ew t and Sc oo ter the bl ue t u na? It was t oo s oo n!"

Some additional key details about assonance:

• Assonance occurs when sounds , not letters, repeat. In the example above, the "oo" sound is what matters, not the different letters used to produce that sound.
• Assonance does not require that words with the same vowel sounds be directly next to each other. Assonance occurs so long as identical vowel-sounds are relatively close together.
• Assonant vowel sounds can occur anywhere (at the beginning or end, on stressed or unstressed syllables) within any of the words in the group.

How to Pronounce Assonance

Here's how to pronounce assonance: ass -uh-nuhnce

Assonance vs. Consonance

Assonance is identical to another figure of speech called consonance , with one critical difference: assonance has to do with repeated vowel sounds, whereas consonance has to do with repeated consonant sounds.

• Assonance is repetition of vowel sounds: "I m i ght l i ke to take a fl i ght to an i sland in the sk y ."
• Consonance is repetition of consonant sounds: "A du ck that c lu ck ed drove a tru ck into an a q uedu c t.

Assonance vs. Alliteration

Alliteration is another figure of speech that involves the repetition of sounds and is related to assonance. Assonance and alliteration differ in two key respects.

• Types of repeating sounds: Assonance involves the repetition of only vowel sounds, whereas alliteration can involve the repetition of either vowel sounds or consonant sounds.
• Position of repeating sounds: The repeating sounds of assonance can occur anywhere in a word. The repeating sounds of alliteration, in contrast, must occur either in the first syllables of words or on the stressed syllables of words.

In practical terms, these rules mean that assonance can sometimes also be alliteration, but isn't always.

Assonance That Is Also Alliteration

Here are two examples of assonance that is also alliteration. In the first example, the assonance occurs at the beginning of words in the group. In the second example, assonance always occurs on stressed syllables of words (note that the second syllables of the words "decline" and "define" are the stressed syllables):

• " Au nt A gnes! A ck! A nother a ccounting error!"
• I l i ke to decl i ne an offer of w i ne to def i ne m y st y le.

Assonance That Is NOT Also Alliteration

In the example below, assonance is not also alliteration, because the repeating vowel sound almost never occurs on either the first or stressed syllables (only on "imp" does it do either):

• Al i ce i gnored the mal i ce of the i mp and bought the pal a ce.

If you read this example aloud, and also read aloud the assonance examples that are alliteration, you'll sense that, while both have repeating vowel sounds, the examples that are also alliteration have a kind of rhythm to them that non-alliterative assonance lacks.

Assonance and Rhyme

Assonance also plays a role in rhyme . Rhyme is the repetition of identical sounds located at the ends of words. Rhymes can be either repeated consonant sounds or vowel sounds (or combinations of the two). A rhyme, then, can be assonant, but not all rhymes are assonant. Here's an example of assonance functioning as rhyme at the end of lines three and four of the limerick below:

There once was a man named Clark Whose dog refused to bark But when he gave the dog p ie It stopped being so sh y And is loud nonstop until dark

Assonance also plays a noticeable role in slant rhyme , a type of rhyme formed by words with sounds that are similar but not identical. Slant rhymes often pair similar vowel sounds with dissimilar consonant sounds, which means that slant rhymes often contain assonance. In the example below from the song "N.Y. State of Mind" the rapper Nas uses assonance to create slant rhymes between the first syllable of "prosperous," the word "cops," and the first syllable of the word "hostages." In addition, the assonance of the "uh" sound in final syllables of "prosperous," "dangerous," and "could just" establishes the slant rhyme that ends with the slightly different vowel sound in "hostages."

And be pr o sper ou s, though we live danger ou s C o ps could j u st arrest me, blamin’ us, we’re held like h o stages

Assonance Examples

Assonance is common in all sorts of writing, including poetry and prose literature, as well as song lyrics.

Assonance Examples in Literature

In both poetry and prose, assonance's repetition of sound can give language a musical element, as well as emphasize sounds or words that particularly resonate with the ideas or themes of the work. When assonance is also alliterative, it can add rhythm to text, too.

Assonance in John Donne's "Holy Sonnet 3"

Here, the long-i sound is assonant, and its repetition emphasizes how the sound itself seems to embody the feeling being described, that of longing and sighing—of emotional turmoil. Assonance is particularly useful for this kind of sonic demonstration of feeling.

"O m igh t those s igh s and tears returns again ..."

Chris Martin's "Trajectory of a Thief"

This poem contains both assonance and alliteration. The "ee" sound in "each," "piece," and "meat" slows down that particular sequence, rendering especially vivid the eating of the turtle soup.

"Ted takes you to Chinatown for turtle Soup, ea ch p ie ce of its floating m ea t Wholly disparate ..."

Assonance in The Iliad

In these lines from Book XII of Lattimore's translation of Homer's Iliad the assonance helps reinforce the lulling effect of the winds' sleep:

"When Zeus ... st i lls the winds asleep i n the sol i d dr i ft ..."

Assonance in "The Seafarer"

The Seafarer is an Old English poem. In Old English poetry, rhyme was much less common, and assonance and consonance much more prevalent. In this translation of the poem by Ezra Pound, the assonance helps to emphasize the "harshness" described in the lines, through the repetition of the "-ar" sound.

Journey's j ar gon, how I in h ar sh days H ar dship endured oft.

Assonance in William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom

In this example, the assonance reinforces the repetition of the surname Bon, which is itself the French word for "good," thus drawing a contrast between the continued presence of "goodness" and the "getting rid of" described.

"So it took Charles B o n and his mother to get rid of old T o m, and Charles B o n and the o ctoroon to get rid of Judith, and Charles B o n and Clytie to get rid of Henry; and Charles B o n's mother and Charles B o n's grandmother g o t rid of Charles B o n."

Assonance in Alice Walker's The Color Purple

In this example from the first chapter of Alice Walker's The Color Purple , the insistence of the repeated "i" sounds intensifies the staccato present in these lines and establishes the narrator's tone—a combination of fear, intense description, and melancholy remembrance.

She got s i cker an s i cker. Finally she ast Where i t i s? I say God took i t. He took i t. He took i t while I was sleeping. K i lt i t out there i n the woods. K i ll th i s one too, i f he can.

Assonance in Song Lyrics

Assonance is also common in song lyrics. It can help to emphasize words and ideas, make connections across lines of lyrics, and when assonance is also alliteration it can help to build rhythm in the lyrics, as well.

Assonance in "Painter in Your Pocket" by Destroyer

"And I 'm rem i nded of the t i me that I was bl i nded b y the sun It was a welcome change From the s i ght of you hanging L i ke a willow

Assonance in "Something in the Way" by Nirvana

In this example, there are two sets of assonant sounds, one set on the long "e" sound, and another on the short "a" sound.

Undern ea th the bridge The tarp has sprung a l ea k A nd the a nimals I've tr a pped H a ve all become my pets And I'm living off of gr a ss A nd the drippings from the c ei ling But it's okay to ea t fish 'Cause they don't have any f ee lings

Assonance in "Without Me" by Eminem

Eminem uses assonance in complicated ways throughout his songs, giving them additional rhythm and structure. This example from "Without Me" is a good example:

Some v o dka that'll jump st a rt my h ea rt quicker Than a sh o ck when I get sh o cked at the h o spital By the d o ctor when I 'm not co- o perating When I 'm r o cking the table wh i le he's o perating

Why Do Writers Use Assonance?

Assonance is, fundamentally, an intensifier of language. This intensifying occurs in several senses.

• Assonance tends to draw out the sonic quality of words in a group. This drawing-out makes those words more obvious, or clearer to the reader. It also tends to encourage the reader to spend more time looking at, sounding out, and thinking about those words.
• Because assonance encourages continued attention, it slows down the reading process (and the reading-comprehension process). But because assonance also sounds good and is often easy and/or pleasurable to pronounce, it can also speed up the reading experience of a group of words. This simultaneous speeding-up and slowing-down of language is pleasurable. It's hard to explain why it's pleasurable, but it is; and writers know that creating text that's pleasurable to read will attract more readers.
• Assonance is of special use to poets because of how it encourages repeated reading of a group of words. Poets' lines are often more dense with meaning, wordplay, and figures of speech than a typical line of prose is.
• Sometimes, assonant words can resonate with the content of the lines or sentences in which it occurs, as in the John Donne example from Holy Sonnet 3, above. The assonance in these words allows the poem to put into effect , or to do the thing it is describing, rather than simply to describe or to tell about it.
• In prose that reaches for poetic beauty, assonance highlights the craft of the language by calling attention to the language itself. Not all prose wants to make itself known as language; some prose wants to report facts plainly and clearly. But prose using assonance conveys information and causes the reader to consider the words chosen and the order in which they're written.
• In songs, assonance increases the texture of the lines as they are sung, and provides opportunities for interaction with the tones and pitches the singer uses in combination with the lines. In both the Destroyer and Nirvana lyrics, above, the assonant features are highlighted by the singer via a change in pitch, or a notable increase in the length of the word as it is sung.

Other Helpful Assonance Resources

• The Wikipedia entry on Assonance : A fairly detailed explanation of assonance, with examples from across different languages.
• The dictionary definition of Assonance : A short definition, wth helpful comparison to rhyme.

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A powerful tool to govern even the King

Figures of speech are literary devices which are used to convey ideas that go beyond their literal meaning.

In English, there are more than 200 different  types of figures of speech .  Repetition is one of them.

Repetition Meaning

Repetition is a figure of speech where a word or phrase within a sentence is repeated. It is done for emphasis or for poetic effect. It is a very frequently used figure of speech.

Daily Grammar Test - Attempt Now

• I searched and searched and searched. (The act of searching is highlighted and emphasised.)
• He came, He saw, He conquered. (The pronoun ‘He‘ is repeated thrice for emphasis.)

Repetition Examples

Following are some popular examples of Repetition:

“I‘m nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody too?” —Emily Dickinson, I’m Nobody! Who are You?

“If you think you can win, you can win.” — William Hazlitt

“Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn…” —T. S. Elliot, Ash-Wednesday

“To the swinging and the ringing of the bells, bells, bells Of the bells, bells, bells, bells Bells, bells, bells” —Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells

“And my father sold me, while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry “‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!” —William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper

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Consonance - Definition and Examples

More content, what is consonance , most common examples of short consonance, examples of consonance in a sentence, 5 examples of consonance in poetry, consonance vs assonance vs alliteration.

The key to consonan c e re s t s with the re s pect of con s onant s .

Consonance… is all about consonants!

In the first sentence of this article, you can see a repeated “s” sound in many of the words. This is an example of consonance.

Consonance is a figure of speech that refers to repeated sounds. Specifically, it’s repeated consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of words. (If the repeated sound comes at the beginning of the grouped words, it’s called alliteration .)

Consonance is frequently used in genres like poetry, and it can make your writing sound rhythmic, percussive, and generally more interesting.

You can use consonance within just a few words, or you can use it in longer sentences. And, sometimes, writers use consonance for a full poem or paragraph!

The important thing is to put the same sounds very close together so that the reader (or listener) will understand their connection.

Let’s take a look at some consonance examples!

You don’t need to write lots of words to hear the effects of consonance. Just two or three words will do the trick!

Here are some short examples of consonance:

• Fu nn y bu nn y
• Fu zz y bu zz ing bee
• Blosso m emble m
• A sta sh of ca sh
• Ar c ti c par k ing
• Ele v en sil v er kni v es
• Pi tt er-pa tt er
• The empre ss ’ dre ss
• Ho dg e-po dg e
• A flora l laure l and sorre l arrangement
• Lu ck y du ck
• Wor n yar n

On the other hand, you don’t have to limit yourself to a few words. Instead, you can spread out consonance over a full line or sentence. Here are some examples of consonance in full sentences:

• Ta k e a snea k pea k !
• He walked a pa th wrea th ed in the grow th of thorns.
• Peter Piper pi ck ed a pe ck of pi ck led peppers.
• Can you smell the sti nk of the si nk ?
• My roo m beca m e fa m ous.
• She dressed as a fi lth y, wea lth y wrai th for Halloween.

Many poets use consonance in their work because it creates a rhythm and internal rhyme.

1. William Wordsworth - I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

One great example of consonance in poetry comes in the very first stanza of William Wordsworth’s poem, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud . In these lines, he repeats a “d” sound and an “l” sound.

“I wan d ere d lonely as a clou d

That floats on high o’er va l es and hi ll s,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of go ld en daffo d i l s;”

And depending on how narrowly you define consonance, there are actually even more examples in these 4 lines! There are the “t” sounds in “Tha t floa t s” and the “w” sounds in “sa w a cro w d.”

2. Robert Frost - The Road Not Taken

Our next poet, Rober t Fros t , has a consonant “t” sound at the ends of each of his names! At the beginning of his poem The Road Not Taken , he repeats a “d” sound, as well.

“Two roa d s diverge d in a yellow woo d ”

3. Billy Collins - Introduction to Poetry

Another poet, Bi ll y Co ll ins, also has a consonant name! And in his poem Introduction to Poetry , there’s “l” consonance at the end of the 3rd line:

“I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light

like a co l or s l ide”

4. Adrienne Rich - Amends

In her poem Amends , Adrienne Rich also uses a repeated “l” sound:

“as it soaks through cracks into the trai l ers 

tremu l ous with s l eep 

as it dwe ll s upon the eye l ids of the s l eepers 

as if to make amends.”

And that first line repeats the hard “c” sound in “soa k s through cra ck s,” too!

When you look at Rich’s poem, you can see that writers will sometimes combine multiple forms of consonance within one stanza or one line.

5. Edgar Allen Poe - The Bells

And some poets even put multiple examples of consonance in just two words. If you look back at Wordsworth’s poem from the beginning of this section, you can see “go ld en daffo d i l s” repeats the “d” and “l” sounds.

Edgar Allan Poe does something similar in his poem, The Bells . Here he combines both “l” and “t” consonance in just two words:

​​ “All the heavens, seem to twinkle

 With a crys t a ll ine de l igh t ;”

Consonance is just one of the forms of repetitive sound that you can find in writing. The other two are alliteration and assonance .

Alliteration is very similar to consonance because it also refers to repeated consonant sounds. However, these sounds occur at the beginnings of words.

For example, here is a comparison of consonance and alliteration using repeated “d” sounds:

• A re d pa dd ed be d ( consonance )
• A d aily d ose of d airy ( alliteration )

On the other hand, assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds . And this repetition can happen anywhere in the word.

For example, this sentence has a repeated “ee” sound.

• I ea t gr ee n p ea s.

Mixing all of these literary devices together in your writing can make your words sound amazing!

Celebrate that you’ve learned consonance: twis t and shou t ! Consonance is a great way to excite your reader’s (or listener’s) ear. It can make your writing sound poetic and punchy, and it adds an internal rhyme to the words.

Plus, combining consonance with alliteration and assonance will really make your words shine. So, try working these literary devices into your next piece!

Also, check out the other pages on this website to learn more exciting grammar tips and tricks.

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Figure of speech for repetition of words in the middle of successive phrases, sentences or verses

I know Anaphora is repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses and Epistrophe is repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses.

But what would the figure of speech or poetic device be for repetition of a word or expression in the middle of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses?

For example:

Now we will count to twelve, and we will all keep still.

This is from Pablo Neruda's Keeping Quiet .

• figures-of-speech
• poetic-devices

• Anaphora has a different meaning in linguistics than it does in Greek litererary analysis. It refers to usage of pronouns, not noun repetition. –  John Lawler Commented Feb 22, 2023 at 16:50

It is called mesodiplosis :

Mesodiplosis is the repetition of a word in the middle of each phrase or clause . For example, One, but not two; three, but not four; five, but not six.” ( LiteraryTerms )

Here is an example from the KJV:

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. ( 2 Cor. 4:8 )

Here is one from Shakespeare:

But till that time Come not thou near me. And when that time comes, Afflict me with thy mocks, pity me not, As till that time I shall not pity thee. As You Like It , 3.5.39.

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Repetition Figure of Speech: Know How to Use this Figure of Speech?

You can use figures of speech to accentuate your writing skill. There are different types of figures of speech that you can use to improve your English skills. In this article, we will particularly talk about repetition and its use in literary work.

So keep reading this article till the end you will get an idea of how to use repetition figures of speech to amplify your work.

Also Read: Daily Routine English Conversation: Make Your Communication Skills Effective

What is Repetition?

Repetition is a figure of speech where a word or phrase is repeated more than one time to put emphasis. It attracts the attention of the readers to the specific phrase.

Types of Repetition

There are different types of repetition. Let us discuss them one by one:

#1. Epizeuxis: this is a repetition of words in a sequence such as “why why why”.

#2. Anaphora: this is a repetition of words in the beginning of each phase. For example, you should look left, you should look right, you should look straight while walking.

#3. Mesodiplosis: This is a repetition of words in the middle of any phrase and clause. For example, You should dance but not sing, cook but not eat, draw not sit.

#4. Epistrophe: In this type, the repetition of words at the end of each phrase. For example, I am so happy because you are with me, I am satisfied because you are with me, I am loving this because you are with me.

Also Read: Modern English Words Used in Conversation: Let’s Learn Effective English Speaking Ethics!

Importance of Repetition

Reputation is an important literary device because it allows writers and poets to put emphasis on the phrases that they choose. It attracts the attention of The reader or audience and helps them to understand the central idea of that phrase. Moreover, it is an important technique for oral tradition as there were a number of details a storyteller repeated.

Common Example

# I am thankful to my mother, I am thankful to my father, I am thankful to my friends and family for their constant support.

# I was scared about your safety, I was scared about his safety, I was scared about the safety of you all.

# I think I should start dancing, I think I should start hip-hop, I think I should also open an academy.

# Don’t worry about them, I will not worry about them.

# Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday to you.

# She was startled at his reaction and she continuously asked,”why, why, why.”

# I think I should start a diet, and you should start exercising.

Also Read: Hyperbole Figure of Speech: Get to Know the Definition, Uses and Examples

Literature Example

“Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. “Oh, woeful, oh woeful, woeful, woeful day!” –Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet “And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” –Robert Frost “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” “A horse is a horse, of course, of course, And no one can talk to a horse of course, That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mr. Ed.” –Theme Song from Mr. Ed, television show “My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for being a villain.” –Shakespeare, Richard III ” We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the tyrannical hands of the ministry and parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne.” –Patrick Henry to the Virginia Convention “The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster… Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn’t hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like a disaster.” –One Art by Elizabeth Bishop “It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know … I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love — I and my Annabel Lee …” –Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light… And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” –Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas “My dog has died. I buried him in the garden next to a rusted old machine. Some day I’ll join him right there, but now he’s gone with his shaggy coat, his bad manners and his cold nose, and I, the materialist, who never believed in any promised heaven in the sky for any human being, I believe in a heaven I’ll never enter. Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom where my dog waits for my arrival waving his fan-like tail in friendship.” –A Dog has Died by Pablo Neruda.

Also Read: Simile Figure of Speech: Examples of Simile Figure of Speech

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