Symploce

You need what I want.
You heed what I want.
You bleed what I want.

"Symploce", like its component parts of Anaphora and Epiphora, comes from an Ancient Greek word, συμπλοκή (sumplokḗ), meaning "interweaving". Symploce is defined as the presence of consecutive phrases, usually sentences, that start and end with the same words, without being exactly the same. Example: She'll buy this wine for my wife today. She'll buy this book for her wife today.

Since it's basically Epiphora with extra requirements at the front, it similarly can occur in combination with Rhyming with Itself.

A common use of this is a character saying something like "I can't do it! I won't do it!", which is made more emphatic via repetition.

Opposite Trope of Mesodiplosis, which is when the middle of the consecutive phrases repeat instead.

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Examples:

Fan Works

• A Certain Droll Hivemind: When Abe Eiko's teasing Aino Sumiko about her He Is Not My Boyfriend starting with "We" and ending with "Out":
  Aino Sumiko took a deep breath. "Anyway! 'Toru' equals 'worthless pig'. And…"
  "Aren't you still going out with him?"
  "We are not going out! We never went out! We… we just went places together as two people who just happen to be male and female.
• A Game of Cat and Cat: "Another Chapter of Just Talking": Soma's relationship with his dominated souls, compared to another summoner about "you" and "us" souls:
  You wanted us, you appreciate us, and you listen to us.
• From Gigi D.G.'s girlcutenicerobot:
  I find myself staring at him with a hatred so deep that it startles me.
  It grieves me.
• The Palaververse: From Treasures, in the second chapter, Daring, "she's" thrilled after passing "her first trap":

  She'd found her first trap. She'd outwitted her first trap.

Film — Animated

• Encanto's song "We Don't Talk About Bruno": Split over multiple speakers:
  Pepa: It was my wedding day
  Félix: It was our wedding day

Film — Live-Action

• Cool Hand Luke: At the beginning of the movie, Carr delivers the following lines:
  Carr: Any man with dirty pants on sitting on the bunks spends a night in the box. Any man don't bring back his empty pop bottle spends a night in the box. Any man loud talking spends a night in the box."
• The Heartbreak Kid (2007): Eddie using it as an example for something for Lila to say to her boss to not need to relocate and instead stay with him, and ends up starting the formation of them marrying to stay together:
  Eddie: Can't you just tell them, "I won't do it. I can't do it. I wanna be a researcher, but I'm not, you know, I'm not gonna..."
  Lila: Eddie, this is my career. I can't say that.
  [...]
  Lila: So, they don't move married people. It's policy.
• The Fly (1986):
  • The tagline: Which adds a word to make it not a repeat of sentences: "Be afraid. Be very afraid."
  • The Stink Snub: Which starts with "changing" Epiphora, then "You [X] bad" symploce:
    Veronica: You're changing, Seth; everything about you is changing. You look bad. You smell bad.
• Luther The Fallen Sun: "I can't do it. I won't do it." when talking about breaking someone's kneecaps.
• Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead: The Tall Man uses a symploce as a reply to Reggie:
  Reggie: It's all over.
  The Tall Man: It's never over.
• The Terminator: Reese describes the Terminator to Sarah with these words: "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with."
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Roger is confronted with proof that his wife cheated on him.
  Roger: I just don't believe it! I won't believe it! I can't believe it! I shan't believe it!

Literature

• In The Elder Scrolls In-Universe Books, an in-game book named Five Songs of King Wulfharth has the titular character asking his soldiers three Where Do You Think You Are? questions at the face of Red Mountain that take Anaphora and turn it into symploce:
  "Don't you see where you really are? Don't you know who Shor really is? Don't you know what this war is?"
• The "For Want of a Nail" proverb-turned-poem traces its origins as far back as the 14th century, making this Older Than Print. Probably the most well-known version is the one which appeared in Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac:
  For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
  For want of a shoe, the horse was lost;
  For want of a horse, the rider was lost;
  For want of a rider, the message was lost;
  For want of the message, the battle was lost;
  For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost,
  And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
• Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh: "Each cycle of [X] is valid".
  Perhaps this is the most important thing for me to take back from beach-living: simply the memory that each cycle of the tide is valid, each cycle of the wave is valid, each cycle of a relationship is valid.
• The Ring verse in The Lord of the Rings:
  One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
  One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
• Lyttle Lytton Contest: A 2003 runner-up by Francis Heaney which is a Shout-Out to A Tale of Two Cities by reusing its first two sentences:
  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; I know that's a contradiction but bear with me.
• Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: From Princesses in the Darkest Depths: "I have [x] them"
  "There are wonders in this world," the cook explained, "things that were brought to life by this secret [Spice of Life] and roam the world still. I have met with them; I have studied them and been instructed by them.
• A Tale of Two Cities starts with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who: Doctor Who S12 E1 "Robot": Multiple:
  • Kettlewell protesting against being party to the nuclear bombardment of the world:
    Kettlewell: I can't do it! I won't do it!
  • When the K1 Robot is warning invaders to the bomb shelter he just exited:
    K1 Robot: You must go or I will kill. I must kill you. I must destroy you.
• Galavant: Most of the verse lines in "Togetherness" begin and especially end the same way, though the changing middles show how the veneer of amiability is cracking.
  Galavant: We eat together
  Isabella: We drink together
  Sid: We work in perfect sync together
  [...]
  Isabella: They fight together
  Sid: They glare together
  All: We breathe each other's air together
• Grey's Anatomy: "Could We Start Again, Please?":
  Arizona: I can't do it. I won't do it.
• New Girl: "Engram Pattersky":
  Schmidt: But I'm not doing the insurance. I won't do it. I can't do it.
• Sanctuary: "End of Nights, Part I": The first lines of the episode, Will trying to avoid coming up with a nickname for Clara:
  Will: Clara... [sighs]... I, I— I can't do it. I won't do it, actually.

Music

• "Locust" by A Ha:
  I don't know, make it.
  I don't know, shake it.
• The chorus of "I Want You To Want Me" by Cheap Trick
  I want you to want me.
  I need you to need me.
  I'd love you to love me.
  I'm beggin' you to beg me.
• "Tightrope Walker" by Clan of Xymox has these lyrics:
  It is the state I'm in.
  It is the shape I'm in.
• "Jupiter 5" by Infadels:
  I was shooting for the stars.
  I was aiming at the stars.
• "Heaven" by New Navy has these lyrics:
  It's not the kind of thing we can talk about.
  It's not the kind of thing we can laugh about.
• The end of Nine Inch Nails' "Last".
  "I want you to make me
  I want you to take me
  I want you to break me
  Then I want you to throw me away"
• In the bridge of "Lithium" by Nirvana:
  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
• "Driver 8" by R.E.M.:
  But it's still a ways away
  But we're still a ways away
  But it's still a ways away
• The second half of the bridge in System of a Down's "Chop Suey!":
  "Why have you forsaken me?
  In your eyes forsaken me
  In your thoughts forsaken me
  In your heart forsaken me, oh"
• The second verse of tool's "Ænema":
  Fret for your figure, and
  Fret for your latte, and
  Fret for your lawsuit, and
  Fret for your hairpiece, and
  Fret for your Prozac, and
  Fret for your pilot, and
  Fret for your contract, and
  Fret for your car
• Yello: The minimalist lyrics of "Oh Yeah" contain a minor recurring symploce:
  The moon, beautiful
  The sun, even more beautiful

Stand-Up Comedy

• There's Jeff Foxworthy's most famous comedy bit, "You Might Be a Redneck", usually involving at least a dozen traits that would qualify one as a redneck. The structure for each one is "If [insert qualifying trait here], you might be a redneck."
  If your richest relative buys a new house and you have to help take the wheels off of it, you might be a redneck.
  If the UFO hotline limits you to one call per day, you might be a redneck.
  If you've been on television more than five times describing what the tornado sounded like, you might be a redneck.
  (et cetera)

Tabletop Game

• Magic: The Gathering: Goblin Lookout (Legions): Flavor Text:
  Throw rocks at 'em! Throw spears at 'em! Throw Furt at 'em!
• Monopoly: Found on community chest/chance cards. Used to say when something must be done NOW. For instance, the "go to jail" card combines a two-line symploce with a two-line anaphora:
  Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

Web Original

• Puella Magi Adfligo Systema: An encouragement of love and caring in "Surface Tension pt. 16":
  Give her a chance. Give yourself a chance.
• 20020: At the end of Nine's speech about Eugene Jennings:
  It's all he ever wanted. It's all we ever wanted.

Western Animation

• The Simpsons: A Shout-Out to the first lines of A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times": In "Last Exit to Springfield", Mr. Burns shows Homer his thousand Monkeys on a Typewriter who are writing him the greatest novel ever written. He scolds one of them after typing "It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times."

Real Life

• "When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it." — US President Bill Clinton
• "Let England have its navigation and fleet—let Scotland have its navigation and fleet—let Wales have its navigation and fleet—let Ireland have its navigation and fleet—let those four of the constituent parts of the British empire be under four independent governments, and it is easy to perceive how soon they would each dwindle into comparative insignificance." — The Federalist No. 4

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