Tuesday, May 14 anaphora and epistrophe

Coming up: Rhetorical assessment on Monday, May 21.  You will be writing an argumentative essay.

Note: If you were absent yesterday, you will need to go onto the blog. There are four examples of the techniques used to make an argument: an excerpt from a speech by Barack Obama and three commericals. For each, identify the Aristotelian Technique and then provide support for either the speech or the commercial to support your answer. This was a graded assignment.

In class:  As a class we will review Queen Elizabeth's Speech at Tilbury, (class handout yesterday) followed by an exercise on anaphora and epistrophe (new class handout today)

Identify the following at to their Aristotelian device: logos, ethos or pathos. For each write why you made your selection.

1. “Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30...


2. "I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed."

I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. August 28th, 1963.

3. "He is a forensics and ballistics expert for the federal 

government - if anyone's qualified to determine the 

murder weapon, it's him."

4."My three decades of experience in public service, my 

tireless commitment to the people of this community,

my willingness to reach across the aisle and cooperate 

with the opposition makes me an excellent 

candidate for mayor.



Name_______________________________

Directions: read through the following speech, 

noting whether the persuasive technique being used 

by Queen Elizabeth I is logos, ethos or pathos. 

Underline the phrase and write a “l”, “e” or “p” above.

Queen Elizabeth I’s Speech to the Troops at Tilbury,

 1588

My loving people, We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people.

Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust.

 I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.

 I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and We do assure you in the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean time, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.

WHAT IS ANAPHORA?

Anaphora is when the first word or series of words in a phrase, sentence, or clause repeats itself for emphasis.

The most famous anaphora that we’re all probably familiar with comes from the opening lines of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. You know, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” etc.

Martin Luther King Jr. also used anaphora in his “I have a dream” speech, with the repetition of that famous phrase.

HOW ABOUT EPISTROPHE?

But what if the repetition happens at the end of the phrase/sentence/clause? Is there a term for that?

There sure is! That’s called epistrophe, or epiphora, or antistrophe. Take your pick; they’re all correct.

Examples of epistrophe appear in Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address ( “…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”), and in Lyndon B. Johnson’s “We Shall Overcome” speech (“There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem.“1).

There’s even a song by Thelonious Monk called “Epistrophy”, which uses notes in a pattern of epistrophe. Like anaphora, epistrophe is used to add emphasis.

Your turn: identify the rhetorical device

1. “What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?”

2.  If you had known the virtue of the ring,

Or half her worthiness that gave the ring,

Or your own honour to contain the ring,

You would not then have parted with the ring.

The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare

3. “Every day, every night, in every way, I am getting better and better”

4. For no government is better than the men who compose it, and I want the best, and we need the best, and we deserve the best. -John F. Kennedy

5. The moth and the fish eggs are in their place,

The bright suns I see and the dark suns I cannot see are in their place,

The palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its place.

Song of Myself - Whitman

6. “This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings [. . .]
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,”

7. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

8. The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divides us has come. - Nelson Mandela

9. When I was a child,

I spoke as a child,

I understood as a child,

I thought as a child.

Corinthians 13:11

10. If you liked it then you should've put a ring on it

Don't be mad once you see that he want it

If you liked it then you should've put a ring on it

Single Ladies - Beyonce