The definition of repetition

Repetition is a literary device that entails the deliberate usage of a word or phrase more than once in a sentence or group of words. Repetition is often done to produce the desired effect which can be musicality, clarity, emphasis, or memorability.

Repetition is common in our daily conversations, in the content we read, in the TV shows we watch; it is basically everywhere. I know you have a few examples popping up in your head when you think of repetition. They may be phrases or words. My examples may not be similar to yours, but the common thing is that they have repetition. For example, a common phrase like, “Home sweet home.” The repetition of the word “home” brings about a certain tone of emphasis to the statement. Other examples are:

Boys will be boys

Hour to hour

Sorry, not sorry

Over and over

It is what it is

All for one and one for all

Hand in hand

Time after time

Heart to heart

Examples of statements with repetition from TV shows are:

“The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club.” (Fight Club)

“Bond. James Bond.” (James Bond Films)

Here are general examples of repetition in speech and common quotes:

Think and wonder, wonder and think. (Dr. Seuss)

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

The sad truth is that the truth is sad. (Lemony Snicket)

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust (From the English Book of Common Prayer)

Let’s take a look at the use of repetition in poetry.

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to study death." (Macbeth by William Shakespeare)

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth repeats the word “tomorrow” three times to emphasize his frustration with the absence of his wife, she is dead. He emphasizes the idea that in every “tomorrow” of his life, he will never see his wife.

"But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or again, the heart of such a child may fester and swell until it is a mystery to carry within the body, easily chafed and hurt by most ordinary things." (The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers)

The words “heart” and “child” are repeated in McCullers’ work. This has the effect of emphasizing the subject McCullers is addressing. The audience automatically pays attention to the details about the emphasized subject. In the ballad, McCullers insists that the heart of a child is vulnerable.

The difference between repetition, assonance, alliteration, and consonance.

Assonance, alliteration, and consonance entail the repetition of sounds while repetition entails the repetition of words.

Types of repetition

There are various types of repetition, they include:

Anadiplosis

Antanaclasis

Antimetabole

Antistrophe

Chiasmus

Epimone

The uses of repetition

Repetition creates emphasis.

Repetition helps to make a writer’s work memorable.

Repetition enhances clarity in a writer’s work.

Sources

literarydevices.net/repetition/

https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/repetition

https://www.thoughtco.com/repetition-language-and-rhetoric-1691887