Symploce

Symploce is a rhetorical device that combines anaphora with epistrophe. It comes from the Greek for “interweaving.” In symploce, elements are repeated at the end often with a small change in the middle. 

A good example of this would be Sir Winston Churchill's London radio broadcast in 1940: 

We are fighting by ourselves alone; but we are not fighting for ourselves alone. 

This was part of a speech made during World War II when the British were fighting against NAZI air raids over London before the Americans joined the war. 

Here, a small change in wording — that is from by to for — results in a massive change in meaning. The sentiment changes from the anxiety and sense of abandonment from fighting alone to the strength and pride of fighting and sacrificing for a cause and struggle bigger or greater than one’s self. 

The fact that such a large shift in sentiment rests on changing a single word will impress a powerful and immediate effect on the listeners. 

What is symploce?

Symploce is a figure of speech where a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences before repeating a similar word or phrase at the end of those clauses or sentences. It is a device that is often used in verse, prose, speeches, and arguments.

Example of symploce in verse

A notable example of symploce as a rhetorical device is in Thomas Wyatt’s “Is it Possible”.

Here is the short lyrical poem in full: 

Is it possible

That so high debate,

So sharp, so sore, and of such rate,

Should end so soon and was begun so late?

Is it possible?

Is it possible

So cruel intent,

So hasty heat and so soon spent,

From love to hate, and thence for to relent?

Is it possible?

Is it possible

That any may find

Within one heart so diverse mind,

To change or turn as weather and wind?

Is it possible?

Is it possible

To spy it in an eye

That turns as oft as chance on die,

The truth whereof can any try?

Is it possible?

It is possible

For to turn so oft,

To bring that lowest which was most aloft,

And to fall highest yet to light soft:

It is possible.

All is possible

Whoso list believe.

Trust therefore first, and after preve,

As men wed ladies by licence and leave.

All is possible.

The poem is fine. “It is possible” being repeated at the beginning and end of each stanza works well to give a rhythmic pattern that is sustained till the end of the poem.

However, the symploce here is almost too perfect. There is no sudden change or shift in meaning or emotions. The poem ends nicely with a stanza that more or less summarizes the whole theme of the poem.

That is, the fickleness of human emotion that is personified in a divorce as described in the last stanza. 

Bartholomew Griffin, “Sonnet LXII, Fidessa, More Chaste Than Kinde” (1596) is different. Sympocle here is used effectively to describe a wild array of emotions being expressed by a jilted and frustrated lover: 

Most true that I must fair Fidessa love.

Most true that I fair Fidessa cannot love.

Most true that I do feel the pains of love.

Most true that I am captive unto love.

Most true that I deluded am with love.

Most true that I do find the sleights of love.

Most true that nothing can procure her love.

Most true that I must perish in my love.

Most true that She contemns the God of love.

Most true that he is snarèd with her love.

Most true that She would have me cease to love.

Most true that She herself alone is Love.

Most true that though She hated, I would love!

Most true that dearest life shall end with love.

The obsession and frustration of the persona’s unrequited love is perfectly captured in small changes in the middle of each sentence, all of which begin with “Most true that . . .” and ends with “love.”

Each couplet seems to capsulate the contradiction and turmoil that the persona is faced with. For example:

Most true that I must fair Fidessa love.

Most true that I fair Fidessa cannot love.

Just like the example with Churchill, we see a massive and dramatic change in meaning with only a few words being changed in a repetitive pattern. 

Example of symploce in prose and speech

Here are more examples of symploce in prose and speech:

Trollope, The Prime Minister (1876):

I am not afraid of you; — but I am afraid for you. 

Dickens, Hard Times (1854):

 I'll state the fact of it to you. It's the pleasantest work there is, and it's the lightest work there is, and it's the best-paid work there is.

Corinthians 13:11

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Symploce can also be used in conjunction with another rhetorical device Isocolon, that is, parallel structure. Let’s look at the example of Wild in The English Renaissance of Art (1882): 

For who does not love art in all things does not love it at all, and he who does not need art in all things does not need it at all. 

The minor variation in this pattern is enough to separate the two independent clauses that make up the sentence. However, it manages to maintain similarity in terms of parallel structure and the main idea being expressed. 

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2024, September 10). Symploce. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/symploce