"through me pass into the painful city,
through me pass into eternal grief,
through me pass among the lost
before me nothing was created that
was not eternal, and i last eternally.
all hope abandon, you who enter here.

at the gate of hell, dante sees the inscription above that he calls "hard" to take. how does the use of anaphora affect the impact of the inscription?

The use of the Anaphora in this text aims to emphasize the pain, suffering and hopelessness that exists behind the door.

Explanation:

The anaphora is represented in the language with the purpose of impressing force what one wants to express, to emphasize a situation or a feeling. The anaphora is the repetition of words or expressions at the beginning of the sentence, a period or a verse, when it comes to poetry or song lyrics, for example. Repetition may aim to emphasize and make the message more expressive.

In this text, the phrase "Through Me" is repeated throughout the passage.  All the text maintains a structure of repetition, which can be denominated of Anaphora. The repetition, in this case, characterizes the event and its recurrence, all the bad things that are waiting for the one that passes through the door of hell.

they would have to clean it very clean