Alliteration — Definition, Use, and Examples
What is alliteration?
Alliteration is a literary device that occurs when two or more words located closely together have the same initial consonant sound.
However, the words do not need to start with the same letter, as different consonants can create the same sound:
Kevin and Chris both wanted Kit Kats for Christmas.
While “c” and “k” are different consonants, they can create the same initial sound.
For a phrase or sentence to be considered alliterative, the words with the repeated sound must be positioned close to one another. Too many words with different sounds can lessen the impact of alliteration.
Alliteration may also be called head rhyme or initial rhyme.
Why is alliteration used?
Alliteration serves to create rhythm, emphasis, and tone/mood:
Rhythm: Repeating the same initial sound helps create a certain rhythm, especially with poetry where the poet uses a rhyme and meter to pace their work. Alliteration allows writers to either speed the reader up or slow the reader down depending on the sounds they repeat in a given line.
Emphasis: Writers often incorporate alliteration to showcase the ideas’ importance. The repetition of certain sounds at the beginning of words focuses the reader’s attention on those particular words.
Tone/Mood: Writers can incorporate the sounds of words to create a specific atmosphere. The sounds generated by the letters “s” or “q” at the start of a word are often pleasant and lead to a calming mood, whereas hard sounds created by “k” and “ch” are often harsh and can produce a threatening tone.
Alliteration, consonance, and assonance
Alliteration, consonance, and assonance are all devices that emphasize the repetition of sounds among two or more words. The differences revolve around the location of the sound and the repeated letter(s).
Alliteration: Repetition of initial sounds.
Consonance: The repetition of consonant sounds at the end of stressed syllables. With consonance, the repeated sound can occur anywhere in a word.
Repetition of “s” sound -- Hamlet by William Shakespeare: “To be, or not to be: that is the question: / Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them? —To die, —to sleep, — / No more…”
Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds usually on stressed syllables. Assonance often creates internal rhyme, such as “rake” and “lake.”
Repetition of short and long “I” sound -- “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes: "But all the time / I’se been a-climbin’ on, / And reachin’ landin’s, / And turnin’ corners, / And sometimes goin’ in the dark / Where there ain’t been no light."
Alliteration examples
Well-known examples of alliteration can be found in nursery rhymes, brand names, famous phrases, and fictional characters.
Nursery Rhymes
Hickory, dickory, dock, / The mouse ran up the clock. / The clock struck one, / The mouse ran down, / Hickory, dickory, dock.
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick. / Jack jump over the candlestick. / Jack jumped high. Jack jumped low. / Jack jumped over, and burned his toe!
Row, row, row your boat / gently down the stream. / Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, / life is but a dream.
Tongue Twisters
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
Sally sells seashells by the seashore.
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Brand Names & Business Names
Bed, Bath, and Beyond
Coca-Cola
Dunkin' Donuts
Fictional Character Names
Bugs Bunny
Mickey Mouse
SpongeBob SquarePants
Famous Phrases
Busy as a bee
Right as rain
Pleased as punch
Alliteration examples in poetry
Poets often use alliteration as a poetic device. The following lines of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" incorporate the use of alliteration:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping.
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
Here is an example of Robert Frost's "Birches":
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb blackbranches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.
Alliteration examples in literature
While writers primarily use alliteration in poetry, the following literary works use alliteration:
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes / A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life…
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
But four hours later the fish was still swimming steadily out to sea, towing the skiff, and the old man was still braced solidly with the line across his back.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.