Many are familiar with poetic devices such as rhyme and metre to lend rhythm to poetry. Rhyme refers to the various kinds of phonetics similarities between words, and the degree to which these devices are used in organised verse. A rhyming poem has the repetition of the same or similar sounds of two or more words, often at the end of the lines. Rhyme may occur anywhere in a line of verse, eg initial/head rhyme, first word rhyme, internal rhyme, and terminal rhyme. It may even extend over a number of lines, eg link rhyme, cross rhyme, interlaced/caesural rhyme, remote rhyme, etc. These patterns of rhyme are often obvious to the reader, but at other times, less so. Deviating from perfect rhyme tends to reduce the effect the poet wishes to achieve, namely, to create a mood for the setting of the poem; much like lighting candles to create a specific ambience.
Alliteration
Over and above rhyme and metre, alliteration is a valuable tool to create a specific atmosphere. Generally speaking: whereas alliteration involves repeating the initial sound of a word (eg slithering snake), rhyme involves the repetition of ending sounds (eg blue/flu). Because of this, alliteration is also known as initial rhyme or head rhyme (to distinguish it from end rhyme/terminal rhyme), but all initial rhyme don’t necessarily alliterate, eg modern/modicum/odd (they rhyme in their stressed syllables). By contrast, alliterating on the ‘m’ sound (not necessarily only in stressed syllables), eg ‘modern (stressed syllable ‘mod’/mellifluous (stressed syllable ‘lif’)/immodest’ (stressed syllable ‘mod’). Initial rhyme is found at the beginning of a line of verse, whereas alliteration may appear anywhere in a line of verse or prose.
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. In regular speech, where metre is not prevalent, the prominent sounds may be influenced by inflection due to dialect. The onset sound of words sets the tone of the alliterative words, eg the ‘n’ sound in now/gnat/gnaw (the ‘g’ is silent). This may extend to include alliteration with a stressed syllable in a multi-syllable word, bearing in mind that the position of the stressed syllable may change in some words due to grammar, eg (stressed syllables in bold): al-lit-er-a-tive versus al-lit-er-a-tion (‘lit’ is a secondary stressed syllable in this word). The position of the stressed syllable may change depending on the context in which it is used, eg record (noun) & record (verb)—this is relevant when alliterating the stressed syllables in multi-syllable words, eg ‘the climatic core heat recorded set a new record’ (the 3 cases of ‘c’ in the alliterative words are highlighted). There are instances where ALL the syllables are stressed, eg es-ca-late, an-y, re-gime, etc.
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, ie single syllable content words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and negative auxiliary verbs. This repetition of sound creates a pleasing auditory effect, making these words excellent for use in poetry, prose, and songs to enhance rhythm and mood. This encompasses consonantal alliteration (involving the consonants) and vocalic alliteration (involving the vowels). It is worth noting that in two-syllable root words, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs are usually stressed on the first syllable, and two-syllable verbs are usually stressed on the second syllable, but there are obviously exceptions, eg even (e-ven) is a verb (but may also be an adjective, or adverb; depending on the context in which it is used) where accent is on the first syllable. Hence, in alliteration, the emphasis is on the initial sounds of words, and not necessarily only on stressed syllables in multi-syllable words, eg ‘softly’, ‘sea’ and ‘serene’ (the stress falls on the second syllable in this word).
Alliteration relies on the sound and not the actual letter, eg ‘stylish/senior/citizen’ alliterates, whereas ‘sign’ and ‘sure’ don’t alliterate even though they both begin with the letter ‘s’, because the adjacent vowels dictate their pronunciation. It includes consonant diphthongs (amongst other names), eg ‘tsunami/Tsar’ (Czar), and consonant clusters, eg ‘strong/string’,digraphs, eg ‘photo’: digraph /ph/ represents the /f/ sound. Single initial consonants may alliterate with unmatched consonant clusters where they share a common initial consonant, eg ‘bring/blast/burn’ (alliterating on ‘b’). Alliteration may include the use of different consonants with similar properties such as alliterating ‘z’ with ‘s’, or they could alliterate hard/fricative ‘g’ with a soft ‘g’—this is viewed as poetic licence. An example sentence:
‘The trick is to tilt the tongue like this.’
The word ‘to’ is not considered alliterative in that line because it is an unstressed function word. In alliteration, the emphasis is usually on the repetition of initial consonant sounds in stressed syllables of content words. Content words (like ‘trick’, ‘tilt’, and ‘tongue’) carry the main meaning in a sentence and are typically stressed. Function words (like ‘to’, ‘the’, ‘is’) are often unstressed and serve a grammatical purpose rather than carrying significant meaning on their own. So, even though ‘to’ begins with the same consonant sound ‘t’, it does not contribute to the alliterative effect in the same way as the stressed content words do. Function single syllable words are, per regular scansion, unstressed: pronouns, prepositions, articles, conjunctions, determiners, and auxiliary verbs. Some single syllable words change from being unstressed to stressed words (function words to content words) and vice versa, depending on the context in which they are used, for example, ‘all’, ‘through’, ‘some’, etc. Repetition of unstressed consonants does not count as alliteration, eg ‘those that this …’. Poets would rather swap these words out in favour of words that contribute to the metre. One needs to be selective of the sounds one wishes to highlight in a metered poem as alliteration adds another layer of emphasis to already stressed syllables (mostly content words), whereas including usually unstressed words in the alliteration might weaken the overall effect.
The repetition of the matching vowel sounds at the onset of the initial syllables in words or a stressed syllable in a multi-syllable word, functions as alliteration, irrespective of the actual letters used, eg the ‘oe’ sound in Ubuntu’/‘oestrus’/’exuvial’. Dialect may also play a role, eg ‘ow’ sound in ’our’/’ousted’/’hour’ alliterate, but in some instances, the ‘h’ sound is pronounced in ‘hour’. The following is an example from my poem, Love Lauded in Song: the ‘a’ sound in ‘aurorae/awesome/awful/autumnal’. Upon closer inspection, diphthongs (‘aurorae’ starts with the monophthong ‘a’, followed by the diphthong ‘ur’) contrast with monophthongs where the tongue or other speech organs do not move and the syllable contains only a single vowel sound, eg ‘autumnal’. Vocalic alliteration may extend to include diphthongs (gliding vowels), eg ‘oil/oink’.
Symmetrical alliteration is a specialised form of alliteration which demonstrates parallelism or chiasmus. In symmetrical alliteration with chiasmus, the phrase must have a pair of outside end words both starting with the same sound, and pairs of outside words also starting with matching sounds as one moves progressively closer to the centre. For example, with chiasmus: ‘rust brown blazers rule’; with parallelism: ‘what in earlier days had been drafts of volunteers were now droves of victims’. Symmetrical alliteration with chiasmus resembles palindromes in its use of symmetry.
When using alliteration, subtlety is the name of the game. The alliterative words, three or more words, are in close proximity to one another, and ideally not in sequence, unless one is aiming for a tongue twister, nursery rhyme or rap music. Two words may obviously also alliterate, eg dead as a doornail, but this might be more by chance than design, eg Red Rocky Mountain. The following literary and rhetorical devices are more obvious: Consonance, assonance, sibilance, tautograms, onomatopoeia, and euphony. In these cases the words follow close together, whereas alliterative words are often more spread out over the text.
EXAMPLES OF ALLITERATION
- In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob tree / I came down the steps with my pitcher (from ‘Snake’, DH Lawrence).
- ‘…taking the photograph surreptitiously with my iPhone. It is fitting that the picture isn’t perfect.’ (An extract from my vignette, The Reluctant Bride.) [Edit]
- It may include more than one example of alliterative words which are usually complimentary or contrasting in the sound affects to create a particular mood. In the following example I contrast the harsher sounding alliteration ‘tr’, with the more euphonious ‘w’ and longer vowel sound ‘ee’ in the first line, swapping the latter out for the shorter/sharper sounding vowel sounds in the second line, thus juxtaposing the serene scene and the emotionally charged second line.
the trailing weeping willow tree branches sweeping the water
are dripping with my tears, trying not to merge with the cauldron
Consonance and Assonance
As a poetic device, alliteration is often discussed together with consonance, the repetition of end or medial consonants, as in ‘stroke’ and ‘luck’, and assonance, the repetition of stressed vowel sounds within two or more words with different end consonants, as in ‘stony’ and ‘holy’. Alliteration, consonance, and assonance are all similar in that they contain repetitions of certain sounds. This might be more noticeable when listening to a foreign language where you are unfamiliar with the actual meaning of the words—a good way to train one’s ear to the varied sounds human speech encompasses.
- 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 ’k’ sound in ‘like clicking claves’. Consonance, eg ‘as the wind will bend’ is another phonetic agreement akin to alliteration.
- 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
Most people are familiar with the oft quoted example of the tongue twister: ‘She sells seashells by the seashore.' In the following cases the words follow more closely together than 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. The key is the repeated use of these sounds to create a specific auditory effect. 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’, ‘ch’ sounds, eg A shark sliced through the water, charging toward the shore. It may appear anywhere in the words – beginning, middle, or end – eg The silent sea whispers secrets (at the beginning and in the middle of words); Misty skies and the breeze's sigh (in the middle and at the end of words), etc.
- A special case of alliteration: Words beginning with s- (without a consonant cluster) can alliterate with words beginning with a consonant cluster beginning with s- (such as sp-, st-, and sk-). strange-scented shade, steps (from the example of alliteration mentioned earlier) DO alliterate, because they all start with the same initial consonant sound 's'.
- 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. For example: The bees busily buzz between the breeze bent bird of paradise. (a combination of onomatopoeia and alliteration).
- 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.
- Euphonious words: In contrast to fricative consonants, eg ‘grating words might lead to great grieve’, euphonious words are more pleasing to the ear. It can be used with other literary devices like alliteration, assonance and rhyme to create more melodic effects. Euphony involves the use of long vowels, harmonious consonants, such as l, m, n, r, and the soft f and v sounds. It also uses soft consonant or semi-vowels, including w, s, y, and th or wh, extensively to create more pleasing sounds. For example, a line from The Lotos-Eaters [sic], by Alfred, Lord Tennyson:
The charmed sunset lingered low adown
Summary
To get your mind around it, think of the end rhymes ‘blend/trend’; ‘blue/true’—they rhyme perfectly in the end SOUNDS of the words (highlighted for ease of reference). Now look at these words with alliteration in mind and they will alliterate as follows: blend/blue; trend/true. Therefore, whereas in end rhyme final sounds (including the vowels) – ie the final syllable – of the words match, in alliteration the onset sounds in the words match, or the onset sounds of the stressed syllables in words, eg ‘soft’, ‘sound’ and ‘persist’ (the stress falls on the latter part of this word). The vowel sound plays an important role insofar as it has an effect on the actual pronunciation of the preceding consonant, for example, ‘sure’ and ‘sign’ don’t alliterate, even though they share the same initial letter ‘s ‘.
Alliteration may be defined as rhyme where the ONSET SOUND of the SYLLABLES in words matches, be it at the beginning of the words or the onset of the stressed syllables in multi-syllable words.
- Onset Sounds: Alliteration focuses on the repetition of initial consonant sounds, not necessarily the exact letters, eg cannon/kind; photo/find.
- Beginning of Words: It often appears at the start of words – consonants or assonants (vowels), eg bold/brilliant; eremite (a hermit)/end.
- Stressed Syllables: It can also be found in the stressed syllables of multi-syllable words, enhancing the rhythmic and auditory effect, eg remit/foment; intend/untried. However, these example words do not alliterate in their own right as they don’t fit the traditional definition of alliteration which favours the repetition of initial sounds in words – they need to be part of a series of alliterative words to qualify as alliteration, eg in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30 we find the line ‘Then can I grieve at grievances foregone’.
Alliterative words are not restricted to any particular position in a line of verse or prose and may be scattered, but retaining a close proximity to be identifiable as such.
Conclusion
The theme through a narrow lens is tough to grasp thoroughly.
As poets, 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. To be obvious is not artistic! Unless the intention is to drive a specific point home by using less harmonious sounds in the poem or prose, such as a lampoon or a satirical piece, or even a scathing news headline.
As a reader, it is well worth the extra effort to read the poem out loud and pay attention to the sounds created and, thereby, the tone set by the poet for his carefully crafted poem. The mood thus created will give the reader an initial inclination as to the meaning behind the words and the overall message contained within the lines.
[Updated 5 February 2025]
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References
Alliteration - Examples and Definition of Alliteration (literarydevices.net)
Alliteration Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
Alliteration - Wikipedia
The images were generated by Microsoft DALL-E 2, January 2025.