A ploce is a figure of speech in which a word is separated or repeated with a delay in order to emphasize a statement.[1] Similar to epizeuxis which denotes an immediate repetition, ploce deliberately adds an intervening word between repetitions for a distinct rhetorical effect.[2]
Examples
- "I am that I am." - Exodus 3:14
- "Make war upon themselves - brother to brother / Blood to blood, self against self." - Richard III, by Shakespeare
- "My lovely one I fain would love thee much, but all my Love is none at all I see." - Edward Taylor, "Preparatory Meditation 12"