anaphora
noun·/əˈnæf.ə.rə/
1. The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginnings of successive clauses or lines, creating insistence and rhythm, a mounting emotional charge.
In her speech the anaphora did the heavy lifting—“We will rebuild, we will return, we will remember”—until the hall began to breathe with her.
2. In grammar and linguistics, the use of a word (often a pronoun) that points back to an earlier referent. Backward reference as a method of cohesion.
The sentence is held together by anaphora: “When the storm arrived, it arrived all at once.”
Etymology
From Greek anaphorá "a carrying back," from ana- "back" + pherein "to carry." The metaphor is exact. The repeated phrase returns like a tide; the pronoun reaches back like a hand.
Related Words
epistropherepetition at the ends of clauses; a complementary device
cataphoraforward reference, the grammatical opposite
parallelismstructural kin that often hosts anaphora
refrainpoetic cousin: repetition as architecture