Hayley Rathburn’s Blog

In John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, I was assigned to look for examples of anaphora and zeugma. Anaphora is defined as the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines. Zeugma is defined as the use of two different words in a grammatically similar way but producing different, often incongruous, meanings.

The first lines of paragraphs 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 all begin with the word “to”. This is an instance where anaphora is used. Also, in paragraph 14 he uses anaphora again when he repeats the phrase “let us” at the beginning of each of the three sentences. At the beginning of paragraphs 15, 16, 17, and 18 he repeats the phrase “let both sides”. And finally, in paragraph 20, he repeatedly uses “nor” in the selection: “Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet.”

The example of zeugma I was able to find Is located in paragraph 22 where he says, “Now the trumpet summons us again – not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are – but a call to bear the burden…” Also, the part of this selection that says “not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are” can be considered an example of anaphora as well.