Symploce
Pattern
X...Y. X...Y — same start and same end repeated
Definition
Combination of anaphora and epistrophe — repeating both the opening and closing words of successive clauses.
Examples
Example 1
When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it.
Bill Clinton, Oklahoma City bombing memorial address, 1995
"When there is talk of" opens each clause and "let us stand up and talk against it" closes each
Example 2
If you had come to the trial, justice would have been served. If you had spoken at the trial, justice would have been served.
"If you had" begins and "justice would have been served" ends each sentence, combining anaphora and epistrophe
Example 3
Much of what I say might sound bitter, but it's the truth. Much of what I say might sound self-serving, but it's the truth.
Shared opening and closing phrases bracket different middle content, creating a rhetorical vise
AI Detection Note
Very rare in AI text. The combined constraint of matching both beginnings and endings requires deliberate structural planning that sequential generation does not naturally produce.
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