Alliteration

Alliteration is repetition of sounds in a sequence of words. It is generally applied to consonants. However, in some cases vowel sounds are also used. Alliterations are used for special stylistic effects to reinforce the meaning, to link related words or to provide tone colour.

In alliterative meter, alliteration is the organizing device of a verse. Alliteration or repetition of sounds can appear within a line or in two or more lines.

For example,

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste.

This verse from Shakespeare’s Sonnet XXX has sessions, sweet, silent words in the first line alliterating S. Similarly thought and sought in the first and third line alliterate the sound ought.

When there is repetition of consonants we call it Consonance.

When there is repetition of vowels we call it Assonance.

For example,

Thou foster child, of silence and slow time.
In this line there is repetition of the speech sound ai in child, silence and time.

Nearby pages
Allium, Alloa, Allobroges, Allocation, Allocution, Allogamy