An Alliteration is a type of poem that uses repetitive sounds in the first and second letters of a word series or repetition of the same letter sounds. The sounds are repeated according to the meter of the poem, and the repetitive sounds are stressed when reading the poem. Many people may have heard of a tongue twister, a simplified alliteration.
The use of alliteration will allow the author of the poem to bring attention to certain words in a line of poetry. Alliteration can also be used to give the poem a rhythmic sound. Alliteration is used to create rhyme within the poem or set the mood of the poem. The poem can be soft or have harsh sounds that repeat.
Example
Yellowstone by Mark Toney
Oh, give me a home ...
where the big bison bellow,
bellowing in beautiful
bucolic backgrounds,
backgrounds begging
backpackers beware,
beware of being beset by
big bison bellowing!
Beset by a bison?
Bison basics best behavior—
Better to back up bovine like
than be busted up by a bison
Better believe it!
Other Examples
Peter Piper
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?
—Author Unknown
The spoiled brat put a coat on the cat
The spoiled brat broke a bike with her bat
‘Bout whether a rodent’s a mouse or a rat
The spoiled brat said her sister was fat
— Shel Silverstein
Dogs Destroy Dinosaurs
Athena and Apollo
Nate never knows
People who pen poetry
—Author Unknown
Related Terms
assonance, blank verse, chime, clink, consonance, crambo, dingdong, double rhyme, drone, eye rhyme, harping, humdrum, jingle, jingle-jangle, monotone, monotony, near rhyme, paronomasia, pitter-patter, pun, repeated sounds, repetitiousness, repetitiveness,