【正文】Abstract: Repetition is a universal and typical property of language. In recent years it has attracted the interest of linguists, they from a different perspective on the repeated form, the role and the emergence of the reasons are discussed. The paper mainly introduces the definition, classification of repetition. Rhetorical repetition can be divided into Continuous repetition and Intermittent Repetition. Do comparative study of repetition on its function of poetry in use of examples. 
　　Key Words：repetition; literature; poetry
　　I. Definition of Repetition
　　Repetition of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza, or metrical pattern is a basic unifying device in all poetry. It may reinforce, supplement, or even substitute for meter, the other chief controlling factor in the arrangement of words into poetry. Primitive religious chants from all cultures show repetition developing into cadence and song, with parallelism and repetition still constituting, most frequently as anaphora, an important part in the sophisticated and subtle rhetoric of contemporary liturgies (e.g., the Beatitudes).
　　II. Classification of Repetition
　　Famous British linguist Geoffrey．N．Leech points out in A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry: According to the traditional method of classification, rhetorical repetition can be divided into Continuous repetition and Intermittent Repetition. Domestic scholars divide certain types in details.
　　1. Continuous Repetition: Namely, repeat some words, phrases or sentences, e. g. ：
　　Happy, happy pair
　　None but the brave，
　　None but the brave，
　　None but the brave deserves the fear． (Dryden: “Alexander’s Feast”)
　　2. Intermittent Repetition：Intermittent repetition has many forms, which can be 
　　divided into:
　　(1) Anaphora is repetition of first word or first phrase or first sentence.
　　e. g. we shall go on to the end , we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans ,we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air ,we shall defend on the beaches ,we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets ,we shall fight in the hills. (W. Church: “Report the Miracle of Dunkirk”)
　　(2) Epistrophe refers to repetition of same word or phrase at the end of paragraph.
　　e.g.And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes, we can!
　　At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes, we can!
　　When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can( Barack Hussein Obama Jr.: “The elected speech”)
　　（3）Epanalepsis refers to the cephalic phrase or word of the sentence repeats in the 
 　　end.    
 　　e. g.  This unfrequented place to find place to find some ease, 
　　 Ease to the body some, none to the mind. 
　　From restless thoughts. (Milton: “Samson Agonists”)
　　III.Function of Repetition
　　1．The rhetoric approach
　　The rhetoric approach to the functions of repetition is：
　　The definition in rhetoric is the use of the same words and the same sentences to enhance the manner of speaking. Functionally speaking，repetition mainly reveals intense meaning and feeling, highlights the most important and makes arrangement of ideas clear，particularly in poem ，repetition increase sense of rhythm. In English  repetition means both repetition(fan fu)and verbosity(chong fu) while in Chinese basically they have the similar meaning but are different in essence especially in rhetoric.
　　2. The language acquisition approach
 　　The language acquisition approach stresses classroom repetition can be regarded as a teaching technique that is widely used in classroom teaching. The language acquisition approach to the functions of repetition is：The language acquisition approach stresses classroom repetition can be regarded as a teaching technique that is widely used in classroom teaching. Professor Li Yue (2000)does classroom discourse analysis，daily conversation analysis an d group activity discourse analysis and finds that these three discourses have something in common and also they are different．
　　IV. Repetition and Poetry
　　The repetition of similar endings of words or even of identical syllables (rime riche) constitutes rhyme, used generally to bind lines together into larger units or to set up relationships within the same line (internal rhyme). Such repetition, as a tour de force, may be the center of interest in a poem, as Southey ' s "The Cataract of Lodore" and Belloc's "Tarantella," or may play a large part in establishing the mood of a poem, as in Byron's Don Juan. 
　　The exact repetition of sounds within a line serves as a variety of internal rhyme ("Come here, thou worthy of a world of praise," Chapman, "The Odyssey"). Another repetitional device used chiefly in a decorative or supplemental function rather than in a structural one is assonance, the use of similar vowel sounds with identical consonant clusters. Such a poem as G. M. Hopkins' "The Leaden Echo" will illustrate abundantly how these "supplemental" devices of internal rhyme, alliteration, and assonance may be made into the chief features of the poetic line to support an unconventional system of metrics. The repetition of a phrase in poetry may have an incantatory effect as in the opening lines of T. S. Eliot's "Ash-Wednesday": 
　　Because I do not hope to turn again
　　Because I do not hope
　　Because I do not hope to turn.
　　The repetition of a complete line within a poem may be related to the envelope stanza pattern, may be used regularly at the end of each stanza as a refrain, or in other ways. Rarely a line may be repeated entire and immediately as a means of bringing a poem to a close, an extension of the method of bringing a sequence of stanza to a close with a couplet: 
　　And miles to go before I sleep,
　　And miles to go before I sleep.
　　(Robert Frost, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening")
  Bibliography
　　1.Blakemore, D., Understanding Utterances: an Introduction to Pragmatics.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1992
　　2.Mey, J. L., Pragmatics: an introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993
　　3.Wright, L. & Hope, J., Stylistics: A Practical Coursebook. London: Routledge，2000
　　4.Yule, G., Pragmatics. Oxford: OUP, 1996.