Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric. Ward Farnsworth
I confided all to my aunt when I got home; and in spite of all she could say to me, went to bed despairing. I got up despairing, and went out despairing.
Dickens, David Copperfield (1850)
I look upon that enactment not as a law, but as a violence from the beginning. It was conceived in violence, is maintained in violence, and is being executed in violence.
Lincoln, letter to Joshua Speed (1855)
7. Different conditions, identical outcome: a useful construction when the speaker wishes to show emphatically that all roads lead to the same place.
When we call on you to abolish the fatal impost which keeps the country in paroxysm of excitement, you cry out,“the Church!” When we bid you rescue the country from the frightful litigation which turns our courts of justice into an arena for the combat of the political passions, you cry out, “the Church!” And when we implore you to fulfill your contract at the Union, do redeem your pledge, given the emancipation, to extend to us British privileges, and grant us British institutions, you cry out,“the Church!”
Sheil, speech in the House of Commons (1837)
To ensure good behavior, the slaveholder relies on the whip; to induce proper humility, he relies on the whip; to rebuke what he is pleased to term insolence, he relies on the whip; to supply the place of wages, as an incentive to toil, he relies on the whip; to bind down the spirit of the slave, to imbrute and to destroy his manhood, he relies on the whip.
Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855)
All children ought to love him. I know two that do, and read his books ten times for once that they peruse the dismal preachments of their father. I know one who, when she is happy, reads “Nicholas Nickleby”; when she is unhappy, reads “Nicholas Nickleby”; when she is tired, reads “Nicholas Nickleby”; when she is in bed, reads “Nicholas Nickleby”; when she has nothing to do, reads “Nicholas Nickleby”; and when she has finished the book, reads “Nicholas Nickleby” over again.
Thackeray, speech at New York (1852)
The pattern can be used to sketch a progression, with each possibility more extreme than the last but nevertheless leading to the same conclusion:
I had swooned; but still will not say that all of consciousness was lost. What of it there remained I will not attempt to define, or even to describe; yet all was not lost. In the deepest slumber – no! In delirium – no! In a swoon – no! In death – no! even in the grave all is not lost. Else there is no immortality for man.
Poe, The Pit and the Pendulum (1843)
He got a colony of mice, and cut off their tails. Then he waited to see whether their children would be born without tails. They were not, as Butler could have told him beforehand. He then cut off the children’s tails, and waited to see whether the grandchildren would be born with at least rather short tails. They were not, as I could have told him beforehand. So with the patience and industry on which men of science pride themselves, he cut off the grandchildren’s tails too, and waited, full of hope, for the birth of curtailed great-grandchildren. But their tails were quite up to the mark, as any fool could have told him beforehand.
Shaw, Back to Methuselah (1921)
8. Anaphora and epistrophe. Anaphora and epistrophe can complement each other. Alternating where the repetition is placed – at the beginning of a series of phrases, then at the end – may be used to create an appealing sense of balance.
The things required for prosperous labor, prosperous manufactures, and prosperous commerce are three: first, liberty; secondly, liberty; thirdly, liberty – but these are not merely the same liberty, as I shall show you.
Beecher, speech at Liverpool (1863)
The poor man buys simply for his body; he buys food, he buys clothing, he buys fuel, he buys lodging. His rule is to buy the least and the cheapest that he can. He goes to the store as seldom as he can – he brings away as little as he can – and he buys for the least he can.
Beecher, speech at Liverpool (1863)
Think you that judgment waits till the doors of the grave are opened? It waits at the doors of your houses – it waits at the corners of your streets; we are in the midst of judgment – the insects that we crush are our judges – the moments we fret away are our judges – the elements that feed us, judge, as they minister – and the pleasures that deceive us, judge, as they indulge.
Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies (1865)
In those cases anaphora was followed by epistrophe. Here is the reverse sequence:
But all depends now upon the whole life-strength of the British race in every part of the world and of all our associated peoples and of all our well-wishers in every land, doing their utmost night and day, giving all, daring all, enduring all – to the utmost – to the end.
Churchill, London radio broadcast (1940)
Anaphora and epistrophe also can be interlaced, as in this case where the middle phrase participates in both patterns:
No other principle makes a good soldier; conquer or die is the battle-cry for the good soldier; conquer or die is his only security. . . .
O’Connell, speech at Mullaghmast (1843)
A classic form of transition from epistrophe to anaphora repeats a word at the end of the first two phrases, then moves it to the front of the phrases that come afterwards. The result is secure joinder of the two parts.
Gentlemen call for security; we call for security; we call for security against a policy which would make the British name in Ireland odious; we call for security against a policy which would make the British faith in Ireland equivocal; we call for security against a policy which would disinherit, disquality, and palsy a fourth part of the empire.
Grattan, speech in the House of Commons (1812)
My nephew, I introduce to you a lady of strong force of character, like myself – a resolved lady, a stern lady, a lady who has a will that can break the weak to powder: a lady without pity, without love, implacable, revengeful, cold as the stone, but raging as the fire.
Dickens, Little Dorrit (1857)
Notice the two rounds of anaphora at the end of this last case; and notice throughout how the lengths of the units expand and contract – an important theme considered more fully in the chapter on isocolon.
9. Uses of variety. As with anaphora and other repetitive devices, the strongest uses of epistrophe sometimes are made by establishing the pattern and then abandoning it. Thus it often is effective to repeat an ending a few times and then drop it in the concluding phrase; the finale is given a push because it releases the energy created by the earlier rounds of repetition.
I will not parade the two old women, whose untimely and unseemly introduction into the dress-circle of diplomacy was hardly to have been expected of the high official whose name is at the bottom of this paper. They prove nothing, they disprove nothing, they illustrate nothing – except that a statesman may forget himself.
Holmes, John Lothrop Motley: A Memoir (1879)
Slavery shrinks from the light; it hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest its deeds should be reproved.
Douglass, speech at London (1846)
These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil in case he do otherwise.
Stephen, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)
10. Note on Lincoln’s applications. We have seen examples of Lincoln’s use of epistrophe already, though not yet his most famous use of the device – probably the most famous instance of it in English:
. . . that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people,