Talk:Epanalepsis

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Please if you have a better example feel free to substitute it.

Amazing that there are so few examples. Seems to me like "epanalepsis" is a useless term, to be eliminated from the English language. Time to prune a bit of fat off. Or is this already unused?

Would "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" Count? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.120.226.247 (talk) 19:41, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

I think that all of the examples for this are actually examples of Antimetabole and an Epanalepsis is something different requiring a repeated phrase but no reversal pattern for example "Please for the love of god I'm trapped in a freaking well ... for the love of god!"

But I'm basing that purely on a quick web search which turned up http://www.americanrhetoric.com/figures/epanalepsis.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.170.80.217 (talk) 23:36, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Differing definitions

I've done some research on epanalepsis, but have come up with results differing from what the current article states. According to Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language the definition of epanalepsis is

a repetition of a word or a phrase with intervening words setting off the repetition, sometimes occurring with a phrase used both at the beginning and end of a sentence, as in Only the poor really know what it is to suffer; only the poor.

(I boldfaced the word sometimes)

The definition according to thefreedictionary.com is

repetition of the same word or phrase after other words have intervened.

To me this seems to imply that it is not a necessity to have the repeated word or phrase at the beginning and end, but simply that any word or phrase can be repeated anywhere else in the sentence.

For instance, a quote from Hamlet II.2.316-320 (http://books.google.com/books?id=VBoVAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage page 58)

What a piece of work is a man ! How noble in reason ! How infinite in faculty ! In form and moving how express and admirable ! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god !

where the word "how" is repeated in each clause.

One further source for a definition which differs from the article:

http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/epanalepsis.html

which says, "Epanalepsis is the repetition of a word or phrase, but in no particular position as long as there are words between the repetitions."

Josh W (talk) 00:21, 5 January 2009 (UTC)