Epiphora Examples

Epiphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of sentences that are close together in the text. Epiphora is another word for epistrophe.

Epiphora is the opposite of anaphora which is the repetition of the beginning part of a sentence. Epiphora is repetition at the end of phrases or clauses.

I want pizza, he wants pizza, we all want pizza!

Keep your hands to yourself. Keep your feet to yourself. Keep your belongings to yourself.

The sky was bright. Her smile was bright. My heart was bright.

Examples of Epiphora from Literature and Speech

From The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare:

BASSANIO: Sweet Portia,

If you did know to whom I gave the ring,

If you did know for whom I gave the ring

And would conceive for what I gave the ring

And how unwillingly I left the ring,

When naught would be accepted but the ring,

You would abate the strength of your displeasure.

PORTIA: If you had known the virtue of the ring,

Or half her worthiness that gave the ring,

Or your own honor to contain the ring,

You would not then have parted with the ring.