ALLITERATION

Alliteration

is the repeated use of the same letter at the beginning of, or within, words in close succession. 

This can be used to emphasise words or phrases, or to add humour, or simply to make something sound more catchy or memorable. For this reason it is often used in football chants and nursery rhymes.

 For example, tongue twisters use alliteration:
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

 Often alliteration is used in newspaper headlines, or in adverts to create memorable catchphrases etc.  Dependant on the letter used it can have a harsh, striking effect or a gentle, softening effect.

Another form of alliteration is

  • Assonance,

 which is the repetition of vowel sounds within a word, so is a little more subtle, eg, Joni-Jo the pony, and he only eats lean meat

Finally,

  • Consonance

is another form of alliteration where the same consonant is repeated in close succession. eg pitter, patter or kissing Mississsippi on the lips.    (See my silly poem  Consonance Classes for an example of its use.)

These techniques can really help to make your writing more interesting to read; try practising them with the following fun ideas:

Make up newspaper headlines…

Think of some fairytale stories or nursery rhymes and try to make up some catchy newspaper headlines for them.

For example:

The Three Little Pigs : Horror of Hogs Hounded out of House and Home

(Notice that the above example has alliteration and assonance)

Alternatively, just look through newspaper headlines to find some examples of alliteration

 

 

Give some animals imaginary alliterated names…

For example Gerry Giraffe, Freddy Frog.

For a bigger challenge try to add some assonance in too, for example Bubbly Bunny, a Bundle of Fun.  Now extend this into a story poem.

 

 

 

 

Alliterate each others names….

For example,  Magical Martin, Brilliant Bradley etc

Notice how much better Brilliant Bradley is than, for example, Bouncing Bradley as the repetition of “Br” emphasises the alliteration even more.

Challenge yourself further by looking for appropriate, complimentary adjectives that suit the person.

 

Look at the traditional nursery rhymes page

and find the examples of alliteration, assonance and consonance.

 
Look at FIGURATIVE POEMS above  and click on ALLITERATION to find poems which demonstrate the use of alliteration in differing degrees.  Remember that alliteration is a technique that is effective and used frequently, so many alliteration poems will be listed, but some will be much better examples than others, whilst some will have a more general combination of figurative language and writing techniques.  I have written a few alliteration poems for children, specifically for the purpose of giving an understanding of the technique, such as Alliteration Al, Bad Behaviour at the Alliteration Zoo and Consonance Classes, so these will be key alliteration poems to begin with.  However, I have included an introduction with each poem to give you some indication of the techniques it uses, as not all of them are specifically alliteration poetry.

Comments on this entry are closed.