Rhetoric - epistrophe

epistrophe [ɪˈpɪstrəfi] n.

1.) The emphatic repetition of a sound, word, or phrase at the end of successive clauses, verses, or sentences. One of the best-known examples of epistrophe in American rhetoric is in the concluding sentence of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: "and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." Also termed "epiphora" (Garner's Modern American Usage 3rd Edition).

Etymology: Modern Latin, adopted from Greek ἐπιστροϕή: from ἐπί, upon + στροϕή, a turning, from στρέϕειν, to turn.

"For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we've been told we're not ready or that we shouldn't try or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness: Yes, we can" ("New Hampshire Primary Defeat Speech", Barack Obama, 2008).

(Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 1861) ______________________________________________________

Just a quick reminder that today is the last day for your submissions to the weekly challenge: a paragraph using 5 of emulous, propitiatory, prima facie, lineament, hermetic, violon d'Ingres, and weltschmerz. Thanks for reading!