Repetition in Lucille Clifton’s “white lady” I like persimmons. I like persimmons. I like persimmons. There. I’ve repeated the phrase thrice. Now, if I asked you to identify whether I like persimmons or not, you would, almost certainly, say “yes.” Having the same statement reiterated three times makes one more confident that it’s not only important, but that it’s a fact in this context! In Lucille Clifton’s “white lady,” a tone of desperation is conveyed through repetition of words, phrases, and sentence structures. Moreover, repetition highlights that desperation is unique not only to the loved ones of the cocaine addicts, but to White Lady as well. As an aside before we begin, I will note that tone is a complex element within poetry. Hence, it is often conveyed through a mish-mash of literature devices, such as repetition, line breaks, diction, etc. Therefore, I will not claim that this discussion is a comprehensive one that describes all the myriad ways tone has been emphasized in the poem; I will merely discuss one contributing factor to tone. On the surface, repetition is used for conveying White Lady’s greediness. Repetition first appears in the first to third lines of the poem, where the word “wants” is at the start of each. If Clifton wanted to illustrate how desperately White Lady wished to take away people’s loved ones, why didn’t she utilize any other synonyms? For example, she could’ve used “wants” in the first line, “desires” in the second, and “pines for” in