Alliteration in Poetry

Remember when you were little and enjoyed tongue twisters like:  She sells sea shells by the seashore.  Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. zHow much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

These tongue twisters are examples of a literary device used by writers, especially poets, to create interesting sounds in their work. This device is called alliteration.

Alliteration the repetition of beginning consonant sounds to create a mood or feeling in writing.

Notice the beginning sounds:  She sells sea shells by the seashore.  Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. zHow much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Examples zCrunchy crispy cracker crust zfreshly-fried fish flesh zplease pay promptly zthree twigs twined tightly

Examples Pick a partner and practice passing, for if you pass proficiently, perhaps you’ll play professionally.

zWriters generally don't repeat these consonant sounds quite as often as they are repeated in tongue twisters! If they did it might distract the reader. zInstead alliteration is used more selectively to help set a mood or to repeat a sound that occurs in life.

Read the following poem and look for the use of alliteration:

A Hippo's a Heap A hippo's a heap About to pop, He's so colossal He'd better stop -- He's chock full of chow With no more room -- Just one more swallow and … KA-BOOM! by Beverly Mcloughland

A hippo's a heap About to pop, He's so colossal He'd better stop -- He's chock full of chow With no more room -- Just one more swallow and … KA-BOOM! In this poem about a hippopotamus, Beverly Mcloughland uses alliteration to add to the fun by not only using rhyming words to create sound but alliteration too. Did you notice the repeated “H” sound in the title and the first line, "A hippo's a heap" and the repeated “CH” sound in the line, "He's chock full of chow"? Alliteration is used here to add to the fun sound of the poem and works along with the rhyming words to do this.

In Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, alliteration is found in these lines: "The sun began to shine upon the summit of the hills as I went down the road;..." What beginning consonant sound is repeated?

Now try this quote from Kidnapped. How many examples of alliteration can you find here? "He cast about for a comfortable seat, lighted on a big boulder under a birch by the trackside, sat down upon it with a very long, serious upper lip, and the sun now shining in upon us between two peaks, put his pocket- handkerchief over his cocked hat to shelter him."

How many examples of alliteration did you find? "He cast about for a comfortable seat, lighted on a big boulder under a birch by the trackside, sat down upon it with a very long, serious upper lip, and the sun now shining in upon us between two peaks, put his pocket-handkerchief over his cocked hat to shelter him."

Look for examples of alliteration in the following poems.

Bodybuilders Contest From scalp to sole, all muscles in slow motion. The ocean of his torso drips with lotion. The king of all is he who preens and wrestles with sinews twisted into monstrous pretzels. by Wislawa Szymborska

Onstage, he grapples with a grizzly bear the deadlier for not really being there. Three unseen panthers are in turn laid low, each with one smoothly choreographed blow. He grunts while showing his poses and paces. His back alone has twenty different faces. The mammoth fist he raises as he wins is tribute to the force of vitamins. Bodybuilders Contest continued

Lineage My grandmothers were strong. They followed plows and bent to toil. The moved through fields sowing seed. They touched earth and grain grew. My grandmothers were strong. by Margaret Walker

Lineage My grandmothers are full of memories Smelling of soap and onions and wet clay With veins rolling roughly over quick hands They have many clean words to say. My grandmothers were strong. Why am I not as they? continued

Write a poem using alliteration! zYour poem must be at least eight lines long. zYou can separate it into stanzas if you like. zYou must use at least two alliteration sounds.