Epizeuxis
Epizeuxis is the immediate repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis: the same unit repeated back-to-back, with no intervening words. Distinct from anaphora (repetition at the start of successive lines) and epiphora (repetition at the end of successive lines); distinct from parallelism (matched syntactic structure with substituted words). Epizeuxis is the rawest of the repetition figures: the same words, immediately again, with the repetition itself carrying the load.
Epizeuxis intensifies - the repeated unit lands a second time before the listener has finished registering the first, and the doubling does the work that a single statement could not. The figure is most often used to mark an emotional peak: anger, grief, defiance, fixation. Where the figure recurs across a song's verses and bridge rather than landing in one place, the cumulative effect is one of sustained, escalating pressure - repetition itself becomes the song's organising movement, not merely a local emphasis.
Appears in 4 songs
“What died didn't stay dead What died didn't stay dead”
Uncle Jerry notes the chorus line is repeated four times and 'becomes like a chant' or 'mantra.' Angela agrees it functions like a mantra. The immediate repetition of the line creates an epizeuxis-like insistence. Uncle Jerry also identifies the repetition of 'you're alive' four times in the chorus as part of the same pattern.
The chant-like repetition serves to embed the belief that the dead live on through memory, functioning as both emotional assertion and psychological self-persuasion.
“I'm taking my time, taking my time 'Cause you took everything from me Watching you climb, watching you climb”
Uncle Jerry identifies the bridge's repetitions, 'taking my time, taking my time' and 'watching you climb, watching you climb', as further instances of the song's sustained use of repetition as a literary device.
The repetition in the bridge shifts from emotional escalation to deliberate patience, 'taking my time' repeated suggests calculated, slow-burning vengeance rather than explosive anger.
“They strike to kill, and you know I will You know I will”
Uncle Jerry explicitly names repetition as a literary device: 'I should call attention here to the literary device of repetition... Repetition is a literary device generally for emphasis or rhythmic power.' He notes it operates 'throughout the poem', in 'you know I will, you know I will'; in 'Every time you call me crazy, I get more crazy... when you say I seem angry, I get more angry'; in 'I'm taking my time, taking my time'; in 'Watching you climb, watching you climb.' He calls it 'the first time that I've seen repetition used consistently throughout and across the board in one of her poems.'
The repetition creates an escalating intensity that mirrors the speaker's building anger, each repeated phrase pushes the emotional register higher, enacting the very dynamic the lyrics describe.
“And I knew you'd come back to me You'd come back to me And you'd come back to me And you'd come back”
Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss this repeated refrain as the poem's culminating statement, though they note the ending is 'indeterminate', the speaker believes he will come back but the poem has characterized him as a ghost four times. The repetition builds toward a conclusion that may or may not arrive.
The repetition of 'come back to me' enacts the speaker's wish or belief, but Angela & Uncle Jerry read the accumulation against the ghost imagery to question whether the return actually happens.
“I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try”
Angela & Uncle Jerry note the repetition of 'try, try, try', an immediate back-to-back repetition for emphasis. Angela connects this to the chorus imagery of tallest tiptoes and highest heels, saying it shows 'all of this is a huge effort. Like none of this is effortless.' Community supplement (mirrorball episode comments). A cross-source cluster reads the triple "try, try, try" as one corner of a three-song trying-register grouping. Patreon commenter Alexis Luna frames it as a "holy trinity" of mirrorball, this is me trying, and Mastermind: three songs that name the labour the speaker has put into appearing natural. Convergent voices: Patreon commenter Alexandra Ferry-Smith reads Uncle Jerry's "none of this is accidental" line directly into Mastermind's calculation; YouTube comment by @SajalJain-z8d pulls the triple repetition into Mastermind on the same lyric anchor. The epizeuxis, on the community reading, is the device that surfaces the effort the rest of the song spends concealing.
The epizeuxis enacts the relentless, repetitive nature of the effort the speaker describes, the word 'try' hammered three times mirrors the exhausting persistence of the performer who has never been a natural.