Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric. Ward Farnsworth
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of the taxes.
Burke, Speech on American Taxation (1774)
Notice that the anaphora establishes a pattern (nothing simple, nothing manly) which is then relaxed (nothing ingenuous, open, decisive, or steady) – a classic pattern we will consider in more detail below. Here is a similar case from the same source:
It is, indeed, a tax of sophistry, a tax of pedantry, a tax of disputation, a tax of war and rebellion, a tax for anything but benefit to the imposers or satisfaction to the subject.
Burke, Speech on American Taxation (1774)
Burke attractively lengthens the parts as the sentence goes on: pedantry (three syllables), disputation (four), war and rebellion (five), and then the long finale. The anaphora provides a consistent anchor from which these extensions can depart.
He was almost at his wit’s end; – talked it over with her in all moods; – placed his arguments in all lights; – argued the matter with her like a christian, – like a heathen, – like a husband, – like a father, – like a patriot, – like a man: – My mother answered every thing only like a woman. . . .
Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1760)
This time the phrases marked by anaphora (like a. . .) are shorter than the phrases that come earlier in the sentence and the one that comes afterward. One effect of this is a kind of oscillation in the passage, as the phrases go from longer to shorter to long again; another effect is to add force to the phrases with anaphora, since they attract attention not only by the repetition at the start of them but also because they are so short. The anaphora is lightly resumed at the very end: setting the lone last instance of it (like a woman) against the multiple cases that came earlier helps to support the substantive point of the passage – the comparative narrowness of the mother’s reply.
9. Anaphora upon anaphora. Repetition at the start can serve as a stylistic motif, with different words repeated in different ways that echo each other.
a. Consecutive cases. Here is a simple example in which one instance of anaphora (your, your, your) is immediately followed by another (show, show, show).
They tell you, Sir, that your dignity is tied to it. I know not how it happens, but this dignity of yours is a terrible incumbrance to you; for it has of late been ever at war with your interest, your equity, and every idea of your policy. Show the thing you contend for to be reason, show it to be common sense, show it to be the means of attaining some useful end, and then I am content to allow it what dignity you please.
Burke, Speech on American Taxation (1774)
A more ambitious example, with four uses of anaphora in a single sentence:
[A]h! if I could show you this! if I could show you these men and women, all the world over, in every stage of history, under every abuse of error, under every circumstance of failure, without hope, without help, without thanks, still obscurely fighting the lost fight of virtue, still clinging, in the brothel or on the scaffold, to some rag of honour, the poor jewel of their souls!
Stevenson, Pulvis et Umbra (1888)
When stacking anaphora in this way, pay attention again to the lengths of the repeated phrases. It is appealing to set off the regularity of the anaphora with variety in other respects, as when each batch of it differs in the length of its parts from the one before. The passage from Stevenson contains good examples: the middle use of it – without hope, without help, without thanks – uses shorter parts than the first (under every. . .) and last (still obscurely fighting . . . still clinging. . .). In the more common pattern, there are two rounds of anaphora rather than three; the first round consists of longer clauses, and the second of short ones:
[Y]ou, Sir, who delight to utter execrations against the American commissioners of 1778, on account of their hostility to America; – you, Sir, who manufacture stage-thunder against Mr. Eden, for his anti-American principles; – you, Sir, whom it pleases to chaunt a hymn to the immortal Hamden; – you, Sir, approved of the tyranny exercised against America; – and you, Sir, voted 4,000 Irish troops to cut the throats of the Americans fighting for their freedom, fighting for your freedom, fighting for the great principle, liberty; but you found, at last (and this should be an eternal lesson to men of your craft and your cunning), that the King had only dishonoured you. . . .
Grattan, speech in the Irish Parliament (1783)
The you, Sir clauses are the long uses of anaphora, and the fighting for clauses are the short ones – the sorts of miniatures we saw under the previous heading. The shorter second round of repetition creates a sense of acceleration and climax. Here is a similar case where anaphora again is used once with long pieces and then twice with short:
It was he who set the guards on to Winston and who prevented them from killing him. It was he who decided when Winston should scream with pain, when he should have a respite, when he should be fed, when he should sleep, when the drugs should be pumped into his arm. It was he who asked the questions and suggested the answers. He was the tormentor, he was the protector, he was the inquisitor, he was the friend.
Orwell, 1984 (1949)
b. Embedded cases. Uses of anaphora also can be embedded within one another, as in the previous example and as in the next case, where the first use of anaphora (reduced. . .) is suspended in the middle to make room for another (power. . .), but is resumed at the end:
We have been reduced in those five years from a position of security so overwhelming and so unchallengeable that we never cared to think about it. We have been reduced from a position where the very word “war” was considered one which would be used only by persons qualifying for a lunatic asylum. We have been reduced from a position of safety and power – power to do good, power to be generous to a beaten foe, power to make terms with Germany, power to give her proper redress for her grievances, power to stop her arming if we chose, power to take any step in strength or mercy or justice which we thought right – reduced in five years from a position safe and unchallenged to where we stand now.
Churchill, speech in the House of Commons (1938)
Or here, where the in came . . . in they all came constructions make way for some shyly, some boldly, etc., but then are brought back for the finish:
In came the housemaid, with her cousin, the baker. In came the cook, with her brother’s particular friend, the milkman. In came the boy from over the way, who was suspected of not having board enough from his master; trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one, who was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress. In they all came, one after another; some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling; in they all came, anyhow and everyhow.
Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843)
10. Regularity and relief. An important technical question when using anaphora is how regular to make the repetition. Variety can be gained by abandoning the device at the end; the ear is pleased by the repetition, then pleased by the relief from it. The use of flat rather than low here is a good small example:
[I]ts low gates and low wall and low roofs and low ditches and low sand-hills and low ramparts and flat streets, had not yielded long ago to the undermining and besieging sea, like the fortifications children make on the sea-shore.
Dickens, Little Dorrit (1857)
The more common use of abandonment comes after a whole phrase has been repeated at the start of successive clauses or sentences, then is dropped for the last one.
He had his plans for Poland and his plans for Norway. He had his plans for Denmark. He had his plans all worked out for the doom of the peaceful, trustful Dutch; and, of course, for the Belgians.
Churchill, London radio broadcast (1940)
The day of an intelligent small dog is passed in the manufacture and the laborious communication of falsehood; he lies with his tail, he lies with his eye, he lies with his protesting paw; and when he rattles his dish or scratches at the door his purpose is other than appears.
Stevenson,