Alliteration - what is it in domestic and foreign literature

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Alliteration - what kind of literary device is it, where is it used? The word "alliteration" itself has Latin roots and means "letter to letter". This is one of the types of repetition of sounds, namely consonants, as a rule, at the beginning of words. Vowels attached to consonants can also be repeated, but not necessarily. Thanks to this repetition, you can achieve a variety of sound effects. The howling of a storm, the roar of waves, the splashing of water, malicious laughter or tears of joy … - there is no need to inform the reader about them with the help of epithets. It is enough to use such an example as alliteration. Examples in poetry are very numerous, however, do not confuse alliteration with other types of repetition. It involves the repetition of only the same or similar consonants, but not words or phrases.

Some good examples of alliteration

Skillful, that is, moderate use of alliteration is found in abundance in the poems of the classics. Pasternak, for example, felt this technique very subtly. His famous poem "Winter Night" ("The candle burned on the table…") is one of the most striking examples. The repetition of the consonants "m" and "l", soft, rounded, enhances the feeling of boundlessnesssnowstorms, and the sounds "t" and "k" allow you to convey the sound of shoes that have fallen to the floor. We can also see the repetition of the letter "l" in Blok's poem "About valor, about exploits, about glory …". And if for Pasternak it helped to draw the image of a gently creeping universal blizzard, then for Blok the repeated “l” gives the whole poem an unprecedented comforting smoothness - this is sadness about the past, which attracts, as before, but suffering has already lost its sharpness.

Modern poets are often fond of decorative effects, and there are not so many examples of successful poems built entirely on such a technique as alliteration. What is it - unprofessionalism, lack of musical ear or callousness? You can give different answers to this question, but in any case, alliteration is like a spice. It gives the poem taste and color, makes it lively and native, you want to repeat it and even sing it, but its excess will make the dish excessively spicy, and therefore inedible.

The opposite of alliteration is assonance. This is the repetition of vowel sounds. Both of these techniques, of course, coexist perfectly in one work.

Alliteration as a way of organizing a poem

The answer to the question "alliteration - what is it?" will be slightly different when it comes to other languages. In the Russian poetic tradition, although alliteration is the most important means of achieving poetic sound, it still plays an auxiliary role. In some cultures, alliteration is the primary way a poem is constructed. For example, inalliterative verse was very widely used in ancient German, English and Icelandic poetry until the ninth century. It did not have the usual rhyme for us, but at the end of each line there was a clear rhythm, which was set precisely by repetitions of consonant letters. The letters had to be the same before each main stressed syllable (of which there were two) in each line.

Alliteration in Modern English

In English, alliteration is a more particular case than in Russian. We are talking about the repetition of the same sounds only at the beginning of words. For example: Alice's aunt ate apples (Alice's aunt ate apples). This technique is widely used in tongue twisters, political slogans, advertising slogans, song lyrics, and even store names. Answering the question “alliteration - what is it?”, You can give such obvious examples to everyone, such as PayPal or Coca-Cola. Both names are sonorous and easy to remember. And all thanks to the repetition of consonants.

So what is alliteration? There are many complex definitions in the literature. But everything is quite simple if you look at a few examples.