Repetition and Poetry

Repetition of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza, or metrical pattern is a basic unifying device in all poetry. It may reinforce, supplement, or even substitute for meter. Repetition emphasizes whatever it is that is repeated, making it stand out so the reader knows it is important. If you repeat a word or a line in poetry, then that word or line (or those words or lines) appears to be more important than other parts of the poem. In fact, in a poem with repeating lines, all of the other lines are often comments on or elaborations of the repeated line. Repetition can also affect the rhythm of a poem and the way it sounds. In particular, repetition of individual sounds or groups of sounds can strengthen the rhythmic structure. Repetition can be a great tool in poetry and a very effective one, when done well (right), but it is not easy to do. Anyone whose ever partook of poetry forms that use repetition know that it can be a difficult task, that repeating lines and phrases dispersed throughout your poem can sometimes adversely affect your rhythm and the overall flow of the poem. Repetition is not the hardest thing in the world to do, but is very easy to do badly. If repetition, repeating yourself, in a poem, doesn’t lend itself well to the rhythm and flow of the poem, it shouldn’t be done, used, at all. I personally have tried using repetition effectively in poetry and can safely say doing it "effectively" is the most difficult part of the task, although I have managed to do so on two occasions, once in a free form rhyming poem (http://www.best-love-poems.com/poems.php?id=495044), and I recently wrote a Quatern for the "yos sponsored Romantic Poetry Forms and Style Challenge", as one of my challenge entries (http://www.best-love-poems.com/poems.php?id=638976). I am still trying to master repetition in poetry. I am looking to experiment with other repetition forms of poetry. The next repetition form I am looking to attempt is the Kyrielle Sonnet. It is a bit difficult, but that is why I want to attempt it. I might even post a call to write challenge for Kyrielle Sonnets. What I would like to do is discuss using repetition effectively in poetry. I would also like for my fellow P&Q members to post links to poems on the site in which it is done effectively, so those who on occasion have used it well can get the credit and recognition they deserve.

IF

by Rudyard Kippling

IF you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds worth of distant run.

Yours is the earth, and everything that's in it.

And which is more ... You'll be a Man, my son.

IF you can keep your head
when all about you are losing theirs
And blaming it on you.

IF you can trust yourself
when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too.

IF you can dream and not make dreams your master.

IF you can think and not make thoughts your aim.

IF you can meet with triumph and disaster.
And treat those two impostors just the same.

IF you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken
And stoop and build'em up with worn out tools.

IF you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss.

IF you can force your heart, and nerve, and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone
And so "hold on" when there is nothing on you
except the will which says to them "hold on!"

IF you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
Or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch.

IF neither foe nor loving friend can hurt you.

IF all men count with you ... but none too much.

IF you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds worth of distant run.

Yours is the earth, and everything that's in it.

And which is more ... You'll be a Man, my son.

__________________________________________

Bob, Rudyard Kippling did do an excellent job with this poem. The concept works and "IF"- the word that is repeated - palys a cardinal role to and in the poem. It is pivitol in transitioning from one idea to the next -- serving to connect them all, but it is a simple and easily workable concept.