The epanalepsis is a figure of speech

Figure of speech

A figure of speech is the use of a word or words diverging from its usual meaning. It can also be a special repetition, arrangement or omission of words with literal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it, as in idiom, metaphor, simile,...

 defined by the repetition of the initial word (or words) of a clause

Clause

In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...

 or sentence at the end of that same clause or sentence. The beginning and the end are the two positions of stronger emphasis

Emphasis

Emphasis or emphatic may refer to:* Emphasis , intentional alteration of the amplitude-vs.-frequency characteristics of the signal to reduce adverse effects of noise...

 in a sentence; so, by having the same phrase in both places, the speaker calls special attention to it. Nested double-epanalepses form another figure of speech, which is called an antimetabole

Antimetabole

In rhetoric, antimetabole is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed grammatical order...

.

Examples

• The king is dead, long live the king.
• Severe to his servants, to his children severe.
• They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the town bowed down. - Their Eyes Were Watching God ( Zora Neale Hurston)
• Beloved is mine; she is Beloved.
• Blow winds and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow! —Shakespeare, King Lear
  King Lear
  King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
  
  , 3.2.1
• Nice to see you, to see you, nice. - Bruce Forsyth
  Bruce Forsyth
  Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson, CBE , commonly known as Bruce Forsyth, or Brucie, is an English TV personality...
  
  

Etymology

From the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

, epanálēpsis, literally meaning "repetition, resumption, taking up again".

External links

• Audio illustrations of epanalepsis