Example of Poems With Anaphora

Anaphora is a rhetorical figure in which one or more words are repeated at the beginning of a verse or a phrase that makes up a poem. Let us remember that rhetorical figures are literary devices whose purpose is to make an aesthetic use of language. Anaphoras, moreover, are figures of diction, which are based on altering the syntax of sentences.

In the case of anaphoras, its purpose is create sound and rhythm, as well as emphasize the words that are repeated to create a certain meaning within the poem. These words that are repeated will generate a more emphatic meaning in that term, and the effect is different from the one that would be generated if the phrases were changed.

For example:

Oh my love! How you hurt in the soul.
¡Oh my love How I miss your arrival.
Oh my love!I don't know what I'll do without your look

Hightheir illusions flew to open new frontiers,
high he passed the forgetfulness of him through your soul,
high he got lost among mountain ranges,
high left his breath on our blinded thoughts.

As we can see, the anaphora always placed at the beginning of verses or phrases. On the contrary, there is another figure called an epiphora, which also consists of the repetition of words, but these are placed at the end of each verse.

10 Examples of poems with anaphora:

The anaphora is highlighted in bold in each of the following examples:

1. Definition of love by Francisco de Quevedo

She is burning ice, it's frozen fire,
it is wound that hurts and cannot be felt,
it is a dreamed good, a bad present,
it is a very tiring short break.

She is an oversight that gives us care,
a coward with the name of brave,
a to walk alone among the people,
a to love only to be loved.

It's an imprisoned freedom
that lasts until the last paroxysm;
disease that grows if it is cured.

This is the Love child, this is his abyss.
See what friendship he will have with nothing
he who is contrary to himself in everything.

1. My love

My love, the sky has sat on your gaze,
My love, the waves of the universe are born in your mouth,
My love, you have the most serene sun in your pupils.

Cries my soul for the escape of life that has remained in your hands,
They cry my branches for the green of your withered leaves,
Cries the wound in silence for your goodbye,
Cries the night for missing your breath,
They cry the hands that don't know what to take.

My love, you will be the sky that clears my dark memories,
You will a fire that is evoked in the saddest nights,
You will by day my luck and by night my torment,
You will the routes that mark the map of my inner path

1. Rhyme XXXVII by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Before you I will die; hidden
in the bowels already
the iron I carry with which he opened your hand
the wide mortal wound.
Before you I will die; and my spirit,
in his tenacious determination,
he will sit at the gates of death,
waiting for you there.
With the hours the days, with the days
the years will fly,
and at that door you will knock at the end ...
Who stops calling?
So that your guilt and your spoil
the earth will keep,
washing you in the waves of death
as in another Jordan;
there where the murmur of life
trembling to die goes,
like the wave that comes to the beach
silent to expire;
there where the tomb that closes
open an eternity,
everything that the two of us have kept silent,
there we have to talk about it.

1. You know?

¿You know what's behind a thought,
How slowly fades in lost generations?

¿You know what is hidden behind a lost tear,
that like a stream filters through the earth to give life again?

¿You know what's behind the hidden thoughts
under the eyelids of a small child?

¿You know what exists at the end of the universe, in the corner
of each of the world's last gasps?

¿You know how to enter the shipwreck of seconds
who can never be present again?

1. Sheep fountain (fragment) by Lope de Vega

The signs of the blows
Can't you see it here, and the blood?
¿You are you noble men?
¿You parents and relatives?
¿You, that do not break
the entrails of pain,
to see me in so much pain?
You are sheep, it says so well
from Fuenteovejuna the man.
Give me some weapons
well you are stones, well you are bronzes,
well you are jaspers, well you are tigers ...

1. Already kissing crystal clear hands by Góngora

Already kissing crystal clear hands,
already knotting me to a plain white neck,
already spreading that hair over him
what love he drew from the gold of his mines,
already breaking into those fine pearls
sweet words a thousand without merit,
already taking from each beautiful lip
purple roses without fear of thorns,
it was, oh clear invidious sun,
when your light, hurting my eyes,
it killed my glory and my luck ran out.
If the sky is no less powerful,
because they don't give yours more annoyance,
Damn, like your son, give you death.

1. I do not want by Ángela Figuera Aymerich

I do not want
what kisses are paid
neither the blood is bandaged
neither the breeze is bought
neither let your breath be rented.
I do not want
Let the wheat burn and the bread skimp.
I do not want
there is cold in the houses,
there is fear in the streets,
there is anger in the eyes.
I do not want
what in the lips enclose lies,
what in the coffers are locked up millions,
what in prison is locked up for the good.
I do not want
what the peasant works without water
what the sailor navigates without a compass,
what there are no lilies in the factory,
what do not see the dawn in the mine,
what at school the teacher did not laugh.
I do not want
what mothers do not have perfumes,
what the girls do not have loves,
what parents do not have tobacco,
what give the children the Kings
knitted shirts and notebooks.
I do not want
what the earth breaks into pieces,
what dominions are established in the sea,
what flags are waved in the air
what signs are put on the suits.
I do not want
what my son parade,
what mother's children parade
with a rifle and with death on his shoulder;
whatNever rifles are fired
whatNever rifles are made.
I do not want
what send me so and so and mengano,
what the neighbor across the street snooped me,
what put me posters and stamps
what Decree what is poetry.
I do not want love in secret,
cry secretly
sing in secret.
I do not want
cover my mouth
when I say I DON'T WANT ...

1. Never

Never I have loved nobody but you
Never I have expected from life more than your days with mine,
Never my hands will know of another secret that yours does not nest,
Never I will open my dreams to other landscapes that are not painted by your life,
Never life will be the same if you are not there.

1. To Kempis by Amado Nervo

It has been many years that I look for the wasteland
it has been many years that I live sad
it has been many years that I'm sick,
And it's because of the book you wrote!
Oh Kempis, before I read you I loved
the light, the vegas, the ocean sea;
but you said that everything ends,
that everything dies, that everything is in vain!
Before, driven by my cravings,
I kissed the lips that invite the kiss,
the blonde braids, the big eyes,
Without remembering that they wither away!
But as serious doctors affirm,
that you, teacher, quote and name,
that man passes like ships,
like clouds, like shadows ...
I flee from all terrain loop,
no love makes my mind happy,
and with your book under your arm
I'm going through the black night ...
O Kempis, Kempis, barren ascetic,
pale ascetic, what a harm you did me!
¡It has been many years that I'm sick,
and it's because of the book that you wrote!

1. There are eyes that look, there are eyes that dream by Miguel de Unamuno

There are eyes that they watch, -there are eyes that they dream,
there are eyes that they call, -there are eyes that are waiting,
there are eyes that laugh - pleasant laugh,
there are eyes that they cry - with tears of sorrow,
some in - others out.
They are like the flowers - that the earth grows.
But your green eyes, -my eternal Teresa,
those who are making -your hand of grass,
they look at me, they dream of me, -they call me, they wait for me,
I laugh laughs -pleasant laugh,
they cry to me tearfully - with tears of sorrow,
from land indoors, -from land outside.
In your eyesI am born, -your eyes create me,
I live in your eyes -the sun of my sphere,
in your eyes I die, -my house and sidewalk,
your eyes my grave, -your eyes my land.