Alliteration
- Alliteration is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
- In other words Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are in close proximity to each other.
- Eg: But a better butter makes a batter better.
- Alliteration is also called Head rhyme or Initial rhyme.
- “Alliteration” is originated from the Latin word “littera”(Latira), meaning of the word is “letter of the alphabet”.
- It was first coined by the Italian humanist Giovanni Pontano in the 15th century.
- “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” etc used this device.
- “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes;
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life”
( William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet ). - Alliteration has a great role in poetry and prose.
- It creates a musical effect in the text.
- It was used to excess by many late 19th century writers.
- A tradition of old and Middle English prose used alliteration.
- “Alliterative Revival” is a collective term used for the group of alliterative poems written in the second half of 14th century.
