Ring Composition

Ring composition (frame-ring) is a type of construction of a work in which the ending returns the reader to the initial image, motif, situation, or phrase, closing the fictional world into a kind of circle. Such a device gives the work completeness and harmony, emphasizes a certain idea through repetition, and heightens the contrast between the beginning and the end (for, despite the outward identity, the inner content of the image often changes, enriched by what has been lived through). Ring composition is widespread in lyric, where the repetition of the first stanza at the end reinforces the emotional accent, and also in prose and drama. For example, lyric poems often take on a ring frame, in which a repeated image frames the development of thought and feeling. The closing of the fictional time through a return to the starting point strengthens the philosophical resonance of the work, affirming ideas of cyclicity, eternal return, or the constancy of certain values despite the flow of events.