Alliteration is one of the stylistic devices (literary technique) in which successive words (more strictly, stressed syllables) begin with the same sound or with the same letter. Alliteration is a frequent tool of poetry but it is also common in prose, particularly short phrases. In the English language, alliteration can be discerned in Old English poetry, and was a central component thereof. Alliterative verse in one form or another is shared by all of the older Germanic languages.
Alliteration can be either assonance, using repeated initial vowel sounds, or consonance, using repeated initial consonant sounds.
Well-known examples of alliteration are tongue-twisters such as "Round the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran" or "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers".
Alliteration makes for very catchy phrases and is frequently used in modern news headlines, corporate names, literary titles, advertising, buzzwords, and nursery rhymes.
Alliteration makes for very catchy phrases and is frequently used in modern news headlines, corporate names, literary titles, advertising, buzzwords, and nursery rhymes.
Although mainly Germanic in its character, alliteration was known to the Latins, especially in early times, and Cicero blames Ennius for writing " 0 Tite tute, Tati, tibi tanta, tyranne, tulisti." Lucretius did not disdain to employ it as an ornament.
As thus far considered, alliteration is a device wholly dependent on the poet's fancy.
This, for example, is the principle on which Icelandic verse is founded; and we have a yet nearer interest in it, because it furnishes the key to Anglo-Saxon and a large portion of early Englishverse.
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