In rhetoric

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...

, symploce 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,...

 in which a word or phrase is used successively at the beginning of two or more clauses or sentences and another word or phrase is used successively at the end of the same. It is the combination of anaphora and epistrophe

Epistrophe

Epistrophe , also known as epiphora , is a figure of speech and the counterpart of anaphora. It is the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences...

. It derives from the Greek word , meaning "interweaving".

Examples

• "When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it."

Bill Clinton

• "Let England have its navigation and fleet—let Scotland have its navigation and fleet—let Wales have its navigation and fleet—let Ireland have its navigation and fleet—let those four of the constituent parts of the British empire be under four independent governments, and it is easy to perceive how soon they would each dwindle into comparative insignificance."

The Federalist No. 4

• Text, Audio, Video examples of symploce