When we talk about alliteration, we don’t always seem to be on the same page. Some might confidently cite examples of it in poetry and literature, and even identify it woven into speeches. However, there is more to alliteration that meets the casual eye.
Whereas alliteration involves repeating the initial sound of a word (eg silent slithering snake), rhyme involves the repetition of ending sounds (eg blue/flu/true). Because of this, alliteration is also known as initial rhyme or head rhyme (to distinguish it from end rhyme/terminal rhyme).
Painting of Santiago Matamoros, artist unknown – origin Peru.
Mood
Like an artist we need to have firsthand knowledge before we use alliteration to create a mood in our poetry – the chief objective of this poetic device. For example, from the fourth stanza of The Caged Bird, by Maya Angelou
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
It has a certain ethereal quality about it. This is accomplished through the references to the air and the use of the ‘s’ consonant sound (an example of sibilance). The emphasis is placed on the ‘soft’ wind and ‘sighing’ trees. The bird is thinking of the ‘breeze’.
In contrast, in Snake DH Lawrence peppered his Free verse poem with examples of sibilance.
In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob tree
I came down the steps with my pitcher
It initially lulls you into a false sense on security. The poem highlights the shortcomings as well as dark side of human nature. No matter how hard we manage to suppress our evil thoughts, there comes a time when we unwillingly act upon them.
What is Alliteration?
In language, alliteration is the repetition of a particular sound in the prominent lifts of a series of words or phrases in close proximity to one another. It can occur with consonant sounds (consonantal alliteration) or vowel sounds (vocalic alliteration).
Alliteration has developed largely through poetry, in which it more narrowly refers to the repetition of a consonant in any syllables that, according to the poem’s metre, are stressed, eg stylish senior citizen; in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30 we find the line ‘Then can I grieve at grievances foregone’. This common sound is usually repeated at least three times in close proximity (not necessarily adjacent words) – only repeating it twice (eg Red Rocky Mountain), might be seen as pure fluke rather than by intentional literary design.
NB Some consonants are pronounced differently, for example, every ‘c’ in ‘Pacific ocean’.
Alliteration may include the use of different consonants with similar properties such as alliterating ‘z’ with ‘s’ – see the example from the poem, The Caged Bird. Also, poets could alliterate hard/fricative ‘g’ with a soft ‘g’. These are known as poetic/literary licence. It often involves two consonants, eg blink/bladder/bless. The concept is that the sounds are formed orally with exceptional similarity.
The stressed vowels may also alliterate, eg aurorae/awesome/awful/autumnal (from my poem, Love Lauded in Song). Alliteration focuses on the repetition of the initial consonant sound rather than the letter itself, and in this case, these words all share that same ‘aw’ phonetic sound at the beginning. This creates a pleasing auditory effect and can enhance the rhythm and mood in poetry or prose.
Alliteration, Consonance and Assonance
As a poetic device, alliteration is often discussed with assonance, the repetition of stressed vowel sounds within two or more words with different end consonants, as in ‘stony’ and ‘holy’; and consonance, the repetition of end or medial consonants, as in ‘stroke’ and ‘luck’.
Alliteration, consonance, and assonance are all similar in that they contain repetitions of certain sounds. The examples are from my poem, Love Lauded in Song.
- Alliteration is a special case of consonance, since it is restricted only to the beginning of words or in the beginning of a stressed syllable, eg misguided/great/grieve/forgone.
- Consonance refers to the repetition of consonant sounds in close proximity. While this sounds nearly identical to the definition of alliteration, consonance can occur at any place in the word—beginning, middle, or end. It also does not matter whether the syllables are stressed for the repetition of a consonant sound to count as consonance, eg the ‘-nd’, as well as the ‘s’: ‘when the world winds down / and soft sound persists’.
- Assonance refers to the repetition of accented vowel sounds in close proximity—it is more akin to true-rhyme than alliteration, eg love/lauded/song.
Akin to Alliteration
- Sibilance is a literary device where strongly stressed consonants are created deliberately by producing air from vocal tracts through the use of lips and tongue. Such consonants produce hissing sounds. However, in poetry, it is used as a stylistic device, and sibilants are used more than twice in quick succession. It includes the ‘s’, ‘sh’ and ‘ch’ sounds, for example: A shark sliced through the water, charging toward the shore.
- Onomatopoeia is where sounds are spelled out as words; when words describing sounds actually sound like the sounds they describe. It, in effect, adds a sound track to your poem.
- Most cases of alliteration are also tautograms, although certainly not all since different letters can frequently take on the same sound (circle/segment, Catcher/Ken or xenophobia/zephyr). Similarly, most tautograms are also alliterations, although exceptions exist when using letters with multiple pronunciations (crazy/child, I/instead). Another example: inertia, inevitable, and interaction all begin with the letter ‘i’, but they do not alliterate in the traditional sense because they do not share the same initial consonant sound. Inertia starts with a soft ‘i’ sound, while inevitable and interaction start with a short ‘i’ sound. The main difference: tautograms are a written, visual phenomenon, whereas alliterations are a phonetic one relying on the actual sound of the letters.
In Closure
We need to be mindful of the mood we wish to achieve by using alliteration, or any other poetic device for that matter, as subtlety should be striven for. Otherwise grating words might lead to great grieve.
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Your thoughts on alliteration and related subjects are welcome.
Happy quills!
Su
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References
Alliteration - Examples and Definition of Alliteration (literarydevices.net)
Alliteration Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
Caged Bird | The Poetry Foundation
Snake | The Poetry Foundation
Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet… | The Poetry Foundation
Love Lauded in Song (poetrysoup.com)