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Poetic Device · Reference

Anaphora

A move poets keep coming back to.

What is anaphora in poetry? It's the technique of repeating the same word or phrase at the start of consecutive lines or clauses. That's the basic definition. But understanding what it is and grasping what it does are two different matters.

Definition

When a poet repeats an opening word or phrase, they're achieving something a single statement can't convey on its own: they're building. Each repeated line adds weight to the previous one, much like a drumbeat that intensifies before a song erupts. The reader begins to feel the buildup before they consciously recognize the pattern.

Anaphora also generates momentum. Since the ear is already attuned to how the line will begin, attention shifts to what follows the repeated phrase. The variations at the end of each line hit harder. The contrast between the unchanging opening and the evolving ending is where the emotional impact resides.

Poets use anaphora when they want to elevate a list beyond mere enumeration, when they desire insistence over argument, or when they aim to give readers the sensation of a truth being perceived from multiple perspectives simultaneously. It appears in elegies, celebrations, protests, and prayers. Walt Whitman practically built his career on it, as did the authors of the King James Bible, which is why anaphora can feel both timeless and urgent simultaneously.

If you've ever read a poem and felt like you were being swept along, almost as if you were being carried, there's a good chance anaphora played a role in that experience.

Examples of Anaphora in poetry

From the corpus · I to IX.
  1. I.from the corpus

    And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.

    Why this works

    Frost often starts successive clauses with the conjunction 'And' throughout the poem, creating a subtler form of anaphora that reflects how memory tends to circle back. This repetition of 'And' propels the speaker forward while connecting each thought to the previous one, evoking the sense of someone reasoning their way into a decision they've already reached. It lends the poem a contemplative, slightly uneasy tone.

    from The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
  2. II.from the corpus

    O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

    Why this works

    The repeated phrase "O Captain! my Captain!" throughout the poem's three stanzas stands out as one of the most famous anaphoric refrains in American poetry. With each return of the phrase, the emotional backdrop changes: it starts with triumph, shifts to grief, and ultimately leads to acceptance of loss. This consistent opening line heightens the impact of the shifting circumstances beneath it. Each time the reader hears the familiar call, they realize that no one will respond.

    from O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
  3. III.from the corpus

    Ever with pleas'd smile I may keep on, Ever and ever yet the verses owning--as, first, I here and now

    Why this works

    Both consecutive lines open with "Ever," and the second line doubles down with "Ever and ever," creating a cascading anaphoric repetition that enacts the very sense of endless continuation the words describe. The repeated opener anchors the lines rhythmically while the expanding phrase amplifies the emotional and temporal weight of the poet's vow.

    from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
  4. IV.from the corpus

    I have perceiv'd that to be with those I like is enough, To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough, To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,

    Why this works

    The phrase "is enough" repeats at the end of three consecutive lines — a rare instance of epistrophe — but the opening "To" that launches each of the second and third lines also creates anaphoric parallelism, stacking identical syntactic launches ("To stop … To be surrounded") that accumulate emotional insistence and slow the reader into dwelling on each bodily encounter as its own complete sufficiency.

    from I Sing the Body Electric by Walt Whitman
  5. V.from the corpus

    Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt, Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd, Just as you are refresh'd by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh'd, Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried,

    Why this works

    The phrase "Just as" opens four consecutive lines, creating a rhythmic drumbeat of comparison that enacts the poem's central argument — that the speaker and the reader share identical experiences across time. The anaphora does more than decorate: it structurally performs the parallelism between past and present selves, making the device inseparable from the meaning.

    from Crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Walt Whitman
  6. VI.from the corpus

    O powerful western fallen star! O shades of night—O moody, tearful night! O great star disappear'd—O the black murk that hides the star! O cruel hands that hold me powerless—O helpless soul of me!

    Why this works

    Each line opens with the exclamatory "O," the quintessential marker of anaphora, hammering grief into a litany that builds in emotional intensity — the repeated "O" doesn't merely decorate but enacts the speaker's compulsive, almost uncontrollable surge of mourning across four consecutive lines.

    from When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d by Walt Whitman
  7. VII.from the corpus

    The seed ye sow, another reaps; The wealth ye find, another keeps; The robes ye weave, another wears; The arms ye forge; another bears.

    Why this works

    Each of the four consecutive lines opens with the identical syntactic frame "The [noun] ye [verb], another [verb]," a textbook instance of anaphora that hammers the same dispossession rhythm into the reader's ear while the swapped nouns and closing verbs accumulate the full breadth of England's stolen labor — seed, wealth, robes, arms — making the repetition feel not redundant but relentlessly exhaustive.

    from Song to the Men of England by Percy Bysshe Shelley
  8. VIII.from the corpus

    In every cry of every man, In every infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban,

    Why this works

    The triple repetition of "In every" at the opening of consecutive lines hammers home the universality of suffering, while the internal echo of "every" within the first line ("In every cry of every man") compounds the anaphoric pressure, making the device feel inescapable — mirroring the very "mind-forged manacles" the stanza names.

    from London by William Blake
  9. IX.from the corpus

    And gilded honour shamefully misplac'd, And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted, And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd, And strength by limping sway disabled

    Why this works

    The word "And" opening each of these four consecutive lines is a textbook demonstration of anaphora, and its effect here goes beyond mere repetition: the relentless hammering of "And" mimics the accumulative, inescapable weight of the world's injustices, making the catalogue feel not like a list but like a series of blows the speaker cannot stop receiving.

    from Sonnet 66 by William Shakespeare

Reader’s guide

How to spot anaphora

Here's what to look for when reading a poem and suspecting that anaphora is in play:

  1. Scan the left margin. Anaphora occurs at the beginning of lines. If you see the same word or phrase starting several consecutive lines, that's your clue.
  2. Read aloud. Your ear picks up on repetition more quickly than your eye. If you find yourself hitting the same sound or word at the start of each line, anaphora is likely at work.
  3. Check for consecutive or near-consecutive lines. Anaphora doesn’t need to appear in every line, but the repeated phrase should be close enough together that the pattern feels intentional.
  4. Look at what changes. The repeated opening is just part of the device. The variations that follow each repeated phrase are where the meaning shifts. If the endings serve different purposes each time, the anaphora is likely structural rather than accidental.
  5. Notice the emotional temperature. Anaphora often elevates intensity. If a passage feels urgent, incantatory, or like a developing argument, take another look at the line openings.
  6. Don’t confuse it with refrain. A refrain repeats an entire line, typically at regular intervals like a chorus. Anaphora only repeats the opening, while the rest of the line changes.

Writer’s guide

How to write with anaphora

Three concrete moves for putting anaphora to work in your own poems:

  1. Start with a verb and let the objects accumulate. Choose an action word and begin three or more lines with it, altering only what comes next. The repeated verb acts like an engine, with each new object it engages adding depth to the poem. For example: I have carried the name of every street I've left, I have carried the smell of my grandmother's kitchen, I have carried the weight of a language I almost forgot.
  1. Use a prepositional phrase to build a scene from multiple angles. Start each line with the same "where" or "when" phrase and vary the details. This technique shines particularly in elegies or poems about places. For instance: In the house where the windows faced east, in the house where we ate without speaking, in the house that is someone else's now.
  1. Repeat a negation to define something by what it isn't. Beginning lines with "Not" or "Never" creates anaphora that works through subtraction, which can come across as more sincere than a straightforward statement. For example: Not the grief I expected, not the silence I had practiced, not the version of myself I'd promised I would be.

Poems that turn on anaphora

From the public-domain corpus

Adjacent in Structure & rhythm

Open the collection →

Postscript

Frequent definitions