As all rhetorical figures it had the purpose of beautifying the speech
In his final 2012 electoral speech François Hollande, the actual President of France, said:
I, if elected president of the Republic, will do … I, if elected president of the Republic, will not do … I, if elected president of the Republic, will resolve … … Fifteen times in approximately 4 minutes.
The idea was obviously to stun the listeners and emphasize his intention to act on the issues listed after each of his “anaphora”. Like all figures of speech anaphora has the purpose of capturing the attention of the listener and keeping it step after step.
The opposite of the “Anaphora” is called “Epistrophe” And, in the case of the above speech would be:
I will do ……..if elected president of the Republic. I will not do… if elected president of the Republic I will resolve…if elected president of the Republic
