 On November 19th, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln concluded his Gettysburg Address by resolving that a government of the people, for the people, and by the people shall not perish from this earth. 128 years later, the singer Kurt Cobain would use the same rhetorical device in the famous Nirvana song, Lithium. As he struggles with depression in the wake of his girlfriend's death, Cobain's speaker sings, I like it, I'm not gonna crack, I miss you, I'm not gonna crack, I love you, I'm not gonna crack, I killed you, I'm not gonna crack. The repetition of words in Lincoln's Address and Cobain's song are examples of a literary device called epistrophe. Derived from the ancient Greek word meaning turning back upon, epistrophe is the repetition of phrases or words, in a set of clauses, or sentences, or poetic lines. In contrast to the related term anaphora, epistrophe, or epiphora as it's sometimes called, occurs at the end rather than the beginning of those lines or phrases. While this distinction may seem minor, the Greek philosopher Plato builds this end positioning into his theory of the self, which he also calls epistrophe. As you may recall from Plato's famous allegory of the cave, people seeking enlightenment must turn away from the world outside of ourselves. In leaving that false world behind, we turn back to our independent, logical selves to find truth. Epistrophe is thus as much a philosophy as it is a rhetorical or literary device. Artists probably do not have this origin in mind when they use epistrophe, but, and here's where things get strange, the effect of epistrophe in a song or a speech is often surprisingly similar to what Plato had in mind. In Lincoln's speech, for example, the president asks Americans to believe that the terrible losses of the American Civil War will give way to a renewed democratic union of the people, for the people, by the people. In a similar way, in Cobain's song, the speaker remembers the loss of his lover when he sings, I love you, but resolves that he will not give way to despair, I'm not going to crack. Robert Burns's 1795 poem, A Man's A Man for All That, offers one final example of epistrophe that matches this earlier model. In the poem, which is written in Scottish dialect, the poet's repetitive, epistrophic phrases and all that, and for all that, initially emphasize the false world of wealth and power must be turned away from in favor of Enlightenment ideals. This idea is on full display in the third stands of the poem, in which the speaker observes a wealthy aristocrat, what he calls a burky, or a coof, who fancies himself superior to his fellow Scotsman. Burns employs the literary device epistrophe here to enact the turning away from such sentiments. You see young burky called a lord, what struts and stares and all that, though hundreds worship at his word, he's but a coof for all that, for all that and all that, his ribbon star and all that, the man of independent mind, he looks and laughs at all that. As Plato predicts, this turning away from the false and empty values of the outer world lead the speaker to turn inward to discover and enlighten self. In the process, the initial meaning of and all that begins to change, to Burns's vision of a rational, democratic society. Then let us pray that come it may, as come it will for all that, that sense and worth or all the earth shall bear the grie in all that, for all that and all that, it's coming yet for all that, that man to man the world over shall brothers be for all that. Like Lincoln's celebration of the people and Cobain's refusal to crack, Burns's and all that therefore comes to symbolize the value that each speaker invests in themselves and their communities. Their shared use of epistrophe reinforces this idea, blending rhetorical weight to each speaker's vision of a future world beyond their troubled present. So what should you do as a reader when you encounter the literary device epistrophe as you listen to your favorite song or read a new poem? While epistrophe will not always match the ideas that are discussed in this video, it's important to think about what is being emphasized through epistrophic repetition, what contrasts a repeated phrase establishes in the poem or song, and what themes or ideas are being celebrated. Doing so will enable you not only to identify this important literary device, but also to interpret its meaning in the literature and music you love.