Alliteration (Figures of Speech)

ALLITERATION (Figures of Speech)

Alliteration is the repetition of an initial sound in a word. A famous example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." Alliteration is commonly used in rhymes (like Peter Piper), songs (Mean Mr. Mustard, Heartbreak Hotel), products (Coca Cola, PayPal), character names (Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck) and so on. For fun, some people like to give their kids alliterative names to match theirs (John and Jane Jones with kids Jenna, and Jimmy).

• assonance: a repeated vowel sound that can be within a word, not just at the start: Jim Croce sang, "Like the pine trees lining the winding road" and later "the croakin' toad."
• consonance: a repeated consonant sound, like "Bilbo Baggins" or "the Dread Pirate Roberts." (Strictly speaking, alliteration is a type of consonance.)

These three are more than mere sound: they can also add sense to a poem: in Poe's The Raven, the "s" sounds imitate the rustling in "the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain."

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)