Epizeuxis is the emphatic repetition of a word or phrase without interruption. It’s pronounced /ɛpɪˈzjuːksɪs/ and comes from Greek, meaning fastening together.
It’s in the first line in William Blake’s Tyger:
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,In the forests of the night;
Three is the most common number or repetitions, and we’ll see an instance thereof in the Quote.
More than three sounds weird in most places, unless it’s poetry. Here’s Edgar Allan Poe in The Bells with two instances of epizeuxis:
Keeping time, time, time,In a sort of Runic rhyme,To the tintinnabulation that so musically wellsFrom the bells, bells, bells, bells,Bells, bells, bells—From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
That’s seven bells!
Actually, it is possible to get away with extreme epizeuxis in prose, and in a short story at that. Here’s Hemingway in Hills Like White Elephants.
‘I’d do anything for you.’
‘Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?’
If you ever encounter a sensible take on a more numerous epizeuxis, do let me know! (I note that Wikipedia cites Monty Python’s Flying Circus: I’ll have your Spam. I love it. I’m having Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam. But I reckon the baked beans spoils the deal, and it’s still only a seven-fold repetition.)
Here is today’s Quote, the first stanza of Walt Whitman‘s poem O Captain! My Captain!.
Quote:
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,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;But O heart! heart! heart!O the bleeding drops of red,Where on the deck my Captain lies,Fallen cold and dead.
What makes the Quote quiver?
Funky formatting with heart repeated at the heart of the stanza. Rhymed storytelling.
Some poems are pretty pompous profligate poetic pabulum, some are elegant, some are knotted nettles of meaning, some make you cry, and some tell stories. O Captain! tells a story. And it’s short, only three stanzas, so you can read it and enjoy it, without worrying that you’ll be interrupted after four or five hours because it’s time for dinner (e.g. Ovid’s Metamorphosis for which you may need a motivational push to get started.)
What is at the core of the Quote?
Epizeuxis, syncope, anastrophe (or another name for hyperbaton).
You might be tempted to label the opening four words O Captain! my Captain! an epizeuxis as well, and maybe you’d be right in an extended sense.
Syncope is a type of orthographic scheme, or metaplasm, which is the general name for figures of speech that manipulate words, by adding, subtracting, or transposing syllables and letters within words. In particular, weather’d is made to lose a syllable for the metre to work. Syncope occurs in the other two stanzas as well, in the third line of both: in ribbon’d and in anchor’d. (Although in today’s “standard” pronunciation the omitted syllables would not be pronounced anyway.)
Anastrophe, or more generally, hyperbaton is an inversion of the natural order of words or clauses. For example, in English you expect the usual word order Subject-Verb-Object. So you would expect While eyes follow the steady keel, but instead you get While follow eyes the steady keel.
Listen to a fellow blogger, Jordan Harling, read the whole poem.
Reading Recommendations
- T. S. Eliot and the Extended Chiasmus, a post in which I discuss Eliot’s poem Eyes That Last I Saw in Tears.
- Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman.
A Quiver Of Quotes 
Well I’ve said for quite a few years that I carry a poetic license, but now I know you’re the one who sets the exam questions!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are too kind!
I humbly learn from, and make my best effort to follow, the advice of the literary greats: any faults are my own, any virtues mostly likely theirs. I’ll earn a poetic licence one day, like you 🙂 — and wow, your paintings, can’t decide which one’s my favourite Soft Light or Approaching Storm—but until then I listen to E. B. White and try to master the rough country. Here is quote from a much thumbed page of my copy of Strunk and White (I really should include it in a post sometime soon):
And keep the comments coming—I look forward to all opinions and ideas and discussions regarding figures of speech (and pretty much anything linguistic-artistic). 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love your “knotted nettles of meaning,…” and the string of words beginning with the letter p before this phrase – brilliant!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yay! Thank you 🙂
LikeLike
It’s interesting about the use of three repetitions. The use of three in speeches has long been recognised as a powerful way of emphasising your point, eg
Julius Caesar
“Veni, vidi, vici” (I came, I saw, I conquered)
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
“Friends, Romans, Countrymen. Lend me your ears.“
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
“We can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground.“
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people“ General MacArthur, West Point Address, 1962
“Duty, Honor, Country” [repeated several times in the speech]
Barack Obama, Inaugural Speech
“we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America“
Fascinating post again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right you are! The parallel structure provided by an isocolon is helpful all round, and whilst the bicolon makes for good paradoxes and antitheses, the tricolon is a definite favourite for the magical feeling of finality or completeness. The number of elements in a list/structure determines the overall effect of the writing; the neatest summary I’ve seen recently is in Roy Peter Clark’s Writing Tools:
Have you come across a good exposition about why three works so well? Would be curious to hear!
My posts are here to start up a dialogue about why certain structures and techniques make for good writing and reading, so thanks for taking the time to comment and to add the lovely examples. Much appreciated 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
This simple Wikipedia page sums up useful references about the ‘power of three’. The reference to Max Atkinson’s book Our masters’ Voices is worth following up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_three_(writing)
If it all gets too detailed just switch off and listen to Bob Dorough’s song ‘Three is a magic number’!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Mmm, lots of good examples of where it worked. It’s the why … Three symbolises completeness and unity, and the smallest number of items that creates a pattern. That might be all there is to it, although I wonder whether it’s also related to, for example, the number of concepts/ideas we can comfortably hold in short-term memory at the same time (i.e. going from three to four may be substantially harder or different in quality of mental effort required). It’d be fun to look for some research on this.
Thanks for the input! Off to listen to some magic number three music now … 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very informative and interesting. Certainly very useful for those who writes poetry, like me! Have a great day!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cheers! Glad it might be helpful 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person