anaphora and other refrains

Do I repeat myself, yes, I contain multiples. [tweaking Whitman]

anaphora and more

Do I repeat myself? Very well, then I repeat myself, I am many, I contain multiples.

repeat and change

According to the critic Bob Thompson, one of the criteria of Yoruba art and sculpture is “repetition of changes.” This is significant to “For Our People” as well, for the poem does not repeat monotonously but moves unexpectedly, piling on moments and incidents authentic and sensitive to the Black experience, gathering momentum until it reaches a crescendo.

—Angela Jackson commenting on her poem “For Our People” in The Eloquent Poem (Persea Books, 2019) edited by Elise Paschen.

chugging forward

Powered by anaphora the poem was a locomotive of insistent locutions.

replete with repetition

Enough already of the anaphora.

driving force

The repeated phrases gave the poem the hum of a good engine.