Epistrophe
Pattern
...X, ...X, ...X — same ending repeated
Definition
Repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses or sentences.
Examples
Example 1
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.
1 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV)
"As a child" closes each clause, reinforcing the theme of immaturity
Example 2
Government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Each phrase ends with "the people," hammering home democratic ownership
Example 3
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
Proverbial maxim
The repeated terminal "no evil" unifies three distinct imperatives
AI Detection Note
Uncommon in AI text. LLMs favor anaphora over epistrophe because beginning-of-clause repetition is more prominent in training data. Effective epistrophe is a moderate signal of human authorship.
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