alliteration

 

(əlĭt'ərā'shən) , the repetition of the same starting sound in several words of a sentence. Probably the most powerful rhythmic and thematic uses of alliteration are contained in Beowulf, written in Anglo-Saxon and one of the earliest English poems extant. For example:

Ða com of more under mist-hleopum
Grendel gongan; Godes yrre baer...

(Then came from the moor, under the misty hills,
Grendel stalking; the God's anger bare).

— Beowulf, Book XI

The poet was drawing here on an even older Germanic tradition, just as he was setting a high standard for other poets in Anglo-Saxon, who produced such alliterative works as Widsith, Deor's Lament, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Ruin. Although the tradition lay dormant for centuries, an alliterative revival occurred in England in the mid-1400s, as evidenced by such masterworks as Piers Plowman and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (see Langland, William; Pearl, The). Shakespeare parodies alliteration in Peter Quince's Prologue in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
He bravely breach'd his boiling bloody breast.

Modern poets have continually renewed the possibilities of alliteration, e.g., Gerard Manley Hopkins's “Pied Beauty”:

Glory be to God for dappled things...
Landscapes plotted and pieced—fold, fallow and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

Alliteration is the repetition of a leading vowel or consonant sound in a phrase. A common example in English is "Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers". Alliteration can take the form of assonance, the repetition of a vowel, or consonance, the repetition of a consonant, however, unlike a strict definition of alliteration, both assonance and consonance can regularly occur within words as opposed to being limited to the word's initial sound. Some critics hold the opinion that the term "alliteration" applies just as accurately to phonetic repetitions that occur elsewhere than the initial position (first letter), sometimes falling on later syllables, yet retaining alliterative properties due to the form of the example's meter, which, through affecting the syllables stress may mimic the intensity of the initial. Further, the use of differing consonants of similar properties (labials, dentals, etc.) is sometimes considered to be alliteration.^[1] Similarly, phrases such as "Apt alliteration's artful aid" still seems to retain the efficacy of alliteration despite the unique pronunciation of the "a" in each word. This has been attributed by the American writer Fred Newton Scott to the sharing of the attribute of a glottal stop (which he terms the "glottal catch") by virtually every vowel in the English language when it is found in the initial position.^[2]

The relative accessibility of alliteration makes it one of the most commonly used literary tools in English, tracing its origins back to Old English and other Germanic languages such as Old High German, Old Norse, and Old Saxon. Particularly notable examples of early literary alliteration can be found in these languages' poetry, namely Alliterative verse. Alliterative verse is a form of poetry that relies heavily on consonance and assonance rather than rhyme. Perhaps the most famous example of alliterative poetry is the Old English epic, Beowulf. Alliteration in English survives today most obviously in flashy newspaper headlines, advertisements and business names, comic characters, and proverbs.^[3] In the instruction of poetry and prose today it is generally advised to be used with care, lest it overpower other aspects of the work. As the American poet Sidney Lanier once described alliteration, "Scarcely any word so well expresses the feeling produced by it as that which is often applied in America to certain styles of dress--'loud.' And perhaps no more definite caution can be given to the student than that all alliteration which attracts any attention as alliteration is loud."^[4] As testament to the notoriety of alliteration, it is commonly tabulated and statistically analyzed, and has even for example been mapped in a Thomas Churchyard poem in order to correctly date it in relation to his other works.^[5]

Trivia

A good example of how alliteration can pull attention away from the content of what is said can be found in the motion picture Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, when Peter La Fleur is in a heated conversation with White Goodman:

Goodman: Go ahead, make your jokes, Mr. Jokey... Joke-maker. But let me hit you with some knowledge. Quit now. Save yourself the embarrassment of losing with these losers in Las Vegas, La Fleur.

La Fleur: Alliteration aside, I'll take my chances in the tournament...^[6]

References

1. ^ Stoll, E. E. "Poetic Alliteration". Modern Language Notes, Vol.55, No. 5. (May, 1940), pp. 388
2. ^ Scott, Fred N. "Vowel Alliteration in Modern Poetry". Modern Language Notes, Vol. 30, No. 8. (Dec., 1915), pp. 237.
3. ^ Coard, Robert L. "Wide-Ranging Alliteration". Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 37, No. 1. (Jul., 1959),pp. 30-32.
4. ^ Lanier, Sidney. The Science of English Verse. Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing. 2005.
5. ^ Shirley, Charles G, Jr. "Alliteration as Evidence in Dating a Poem of Thomas Churchyard: An Exploratory Computer-Aided Study". Modern Philology, Vol. 76, No. 4. (May, 1979), pp. 374.
6. ^ Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. Dir. Rawson Marshall Thurber. Perfs. Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller. Film. 20th Century Fox. 18 June, 2004.

See also

• Assonance
• Consonance

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