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Repetition
Repetition is really common in poetry, working in all sorts of ways: to draw attention to ideas, to create rhythm, to structure the poem into parts, or to bring the poem together as a whole. Repetition can be repeats of sounds, words, phrases, lines, refrains, structures, sections or stanzas. Spotting the more obvious forms of repetition like repetition of a word or a line is easy enough, but where you score the marks in the exam is in being able to talk about why its there. We show you how, with two poems from different cultures and traditions.
Repetition creates a rhythmic effect when hearing this poem; limbo / limbo like me is like the chorus of a song. This connects with slave songs that were a form of resistance to the power of slave owners. The repetition recreates the rhythm of the limbo dance and invites us to think about how it symbolises slaves going down into the hold of the ships. In Christian thought, limbo is also a place between Heaven and Hell, and the repetition might also make us think about the ship as a place between life in Africa and death in slavery.
In these lines, the speaker realises that the hurricane can connect her to her homeland and to England by making her recognise that all places are connected. With the repetition of I am and you/your, and Come to and me, these lines read like a vow or a prayer, creating a sense of desire for a powerful religious or mystical experience. The speaker wants the hurricane to be a supernatural force that will put her back in touch with the earth. The repetition of the earth is in the last line makes that force seem full of power and certainty.