Diacope

Diacope (/daɪˈækoʊpi/) is a rhetorical term meaning repetition of a word or phrase with one or two intervening words. It derives from a Greek word meaning "cut in two".[1]

Examples
  • "Bond. James Bond." — James Bond
  • "Put out the light, and then put out the light." — Shakespeare, Othello, Act V, scene 2.
  • "A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! — Richard III
  • "You think you own whatever land you land on" — Second verse from the song Colors of the Wind from the movie Pocahontas
  • Leo Marks's poem "The Life That I Have",[2] memorably used in the film Odette, is an extended example of diacope:
The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours.
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause.
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.

The first line in the poem not to deploy diacope is the one about death being "a pause."

  • "In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these." — Paul Harvey. This is also an example of an epanalepsis.

See also

References
  1. "Diacope," by Richard Nordquist. Accessed 24 September 2012.
  2. Marks, Leo (1998). Between Silk and Cyanide. New York: The Free Press (Simon and Schuster). p. 454. ISBN 0-684-86422-3.


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