Complexity is a figure of speech that begins with the same word and ends with another word. For example:I like airplanes, I like you / I like traveling, I like you (Manu Chao).
Complexion combines two repetition figures simultaneously: anaphora (repetition of words at the beginning of verses) and epiphora (repetition of words at the end of verses).
It is important not to confuse complexion with epanadiplosis , in which each line repeats at the end what was established at the beginning, and each one may or may not be different from the previous line.
Examples of complexion
The sea. The sea.
The sea. Only the sea.
(Rafael Alberti)
To
come to taste everything,
you must desire to taste nothing.
To
come to know everything,
you must desire to know nothing.
To come to possess everything,
you must desire to possess nothing.
To come to be everything,
you must desire to be nothing .
To come to what you do not like,
you must go where you do not like.
To come to what you do not know, you must go where you do
not know.
To come to possess what you do not possess,
you must go where you do not possess.
To come to what you are not,
you must go where you are not.
When you notice something,
you stop throwing yourself into the whole.
To come from the whole to the whole,
you must abandon yourself completely to everything.
And when you come to have it completely,
you must have it without wanting anything.
(Saint John of the Cross)
(…) I didn’t know how to serve you, no,
and, now that I would serve you,
I can’t have you, no.
(Anonymous – “Romance of a Fresh Rose”)
That the king should undergo what he orders everyone to undergo is just.
That the prince, in introducing the remedy for his people, should not hesitate to strip himself of his majesty or humiliate himself is just.
That the law he wishes to give to everyone should begin with himself is just.
That he should use the remedy he gives is just;
for although he does not need it for the excuse, he does need it for the example.
(Quevedo – “Politics of God”)
I like cinnamon, I like you
I like fire, I like you
I like to shake, I like you
I like La Coruña, I like you
I like Malasaña, I like you
I like chestnut, I like you
I like Guatemala, I like you
(Manu Chao – “I like”)
Another afternoon that doesn’t burn this afternoon
without the day after tomorrow,
another afternoon so cowardly, this afternoon
that doesn’t taste apples.
(Joaquín Sabina – “Another Cowardly Thursday”)
That a self-respecting Don Pelón
Who ate a shotgun,
It may well be;
But that the honest cactus
Does not say it was salad,
It cannot be.
That the daughter’s father forgets
To look for someone suitable for her,
It may well be;
But that the winter passes
Without her looking for a son-in-law,
It cannot be.
(Luis de Góngora y Argote – “Let Minguilla ask a gallant”)
If you desire honesty, what is more honest than virtue, which is the root and source of this honesty?
If honor, to whom is honor and respect due, if not to virtue?
If beauty, what is more beautiful than the image of virtue?
If utility, what is more useful than virtue, for with it the highest good is achieved?
(Fray Luis de Granada)
