Alliteration : Definition, Examples and Types

Published on 08-May-2023

Alliteration Definition 

Alliteration is a repetition of words or sounds which begins with the same font consonant at the beginning of a word. The writer uses it to create resonance and rhythm in characters or plots. This literary device is famous for its use in poetry and rhymes. 

In simple words, Alliteration is a repetition of words and syllables at the beginning of a word with the same consonant. Commonly, the repetition of the first syllable is initially non-stressed. 

Famously known 'romantic' poets like William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley also commonly used this device in their poetry. Even William Shakespeare's "Sonnet XII" is found to have the use of alliteration.                

More examples of alliteration could be found in Modern Poetry or in essays and speeches to grab the audience's attention. Alliteration helps to maintain the flow of ending sentences while highlighting the rhyming words. Brands also tend to create names with alliteration to quip the customer's interest.

Examples: Coca-Cola, Chuck E Cheese, Pepa Pig. 

While in some other cases, it could also be introduced within phrases or tongue twisters. Tongue twister provides humor to any speech, which helps to engage the audience. 

Alliteration examples

Examples of Alliteration

Example 1: "Wild and Woolly, threatening throngs" The writer created a rhyme and a sense of danger using Alliteration. 

Example 2: "Peter Parker" Creates a remembrance and sound effect in the name.  

Example 3: She sells sea shells by the sea shore, or Cory collects cola cans counting continuously.

Examples of alliteration

More Examples of Alliteration

Example

Author(s)

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree"

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan

"Full fathom five thy father lies"

William Shakespeare, The Tempest

"The murmuring of innumerable bees"

Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Princess

"A host of golden daffodils"

William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

"The sun was shining on the sea, / Shining with all his might"

Lewis Carroll, The Walrus and The Carpenter

"Birches that lift their delicate heads / To sip the wine of the winter skies"

Robert Frost, Birches

"I'm a lean dog, a keen dog, a wild dog, and lone"

Robert Service, The Call of the Wild

"Wailing wind, water wails / And the wintry west is blowing"

Anonymous (Old English Poem)

"The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew"

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

"We saw the sea sound sing, we heard the salt sheet tell"

Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Sea and the Skylark

"Beneath the balmy breathings of the breeze"

Edgar Allan Poe, The City in the Sea

"The lanky hank of a she in the inn over there"

James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake

"Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese"

Dr. Seuss, Fox in Socks

"A soul as full of worth as void of pride"

Alexander Pope, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot

"The power of the pitch, the quickness of the catch"

Ernest Lawrence Thayer, Casey at the Bat

"The round, rolling rocks rumbled down the hill"

Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat

"The whispered woes of lovesick witches"

William Shakespeare, Macbeth

"The wild winds of winter whistling through the trees"

Christina Rossetti, Winter: My Secret

"With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven / Coveted her and me"

Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee

"Twelve twins twirled twelve twigs"

Shel Silverstein, Runny Babbit

"The sea moans mournfully on the shore"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Day is Done

 

"Big blue blocks bouncing around the box"

Anonymous (Children's Tongue Twister)

"Dead men don't drive"

Stephen King, Pet Sematary

"But a better butter makes a batter better"

Anonymous (Tongue Twister)

"She had a habit of being habitually late"

Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair

"Beneath the moon, besotted beasts betray"

Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus

"I fear thee, ancient mariner!"

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

"The lonely loon laments the day"

William Wordsworth, The Prelude

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