Guide to Literary Terms Group

Question:

mfonda
mfonda
Student
College - Senior

What is an alliteration?

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Posted by mfonda on Monday September 22, 2008 at 1:06 PM and tagged with alliteration, guide to literary terms.

Answers:


  1. blazedale

    eNotes Editor

    An alliteration always arrives after artfully arranging all alphabetical alterations allowed and aligned. Basically, building bidding bound by beta bits.

    From the eNotes guide:
    Alliteration (sometimes called initial rhyme) - common in poetry and occasionally in prose, this is the repetition of an initial sound in two or more words of a phrase, line, or sentence. It is usually a consonant and marks the stressed syllables in a line of poetry or prose. Alliteration may be considered ornamental or as a decoration which appeals to the sense of hearing.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/literary-terms/alliteration

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    Posted by blazedale on Monday September 22, 2008 at 1:29 PM

  2. morrol
    morrol Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Alliteration is the repetition of sounds at the beginning of words. Please remember that the repetition of sounds is not the same as the repetition of letters.

    Philosophy and fish alliterate even though they start with different letters. Alliteration is also similar to assonance and assonance. It can be easy to confuse them. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within a word. Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds within a word.

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    Posted by morrol on Wednesday October 29, 2008 at 11:50 AM

  3. laurellh
    laurellh Teacher
    Middle School

    Alliteration is a term in the broader topic of figurative language.  It is often found in poetry, but can also be found in prose.  The best way that I have to get my students to remember alliteration is to think of tongue-twisters.  The definition is actually repeating initial or beginning consonant sounds in a group of words.  Tongue-twisters do this all the time.  "She sells seashells by the seashore."  In this example, the repeating sound is the "s" sound.  One thing I always do to get my students to remember this even more (sometimes remembering what a consonant is can be tricky) is to have them name the vowels:  a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y.  Any other letters are consonants.  Just tell yourself, "alliteration = tongue-twister," and you will probably remember it a little better.

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    Posted by laurellh on Wednesday March 25, 2009 at 10:14 PM

  4. chloeashton
    chloeashton Student

    Alliteration: Repeated consonant sounds occurring at the beginning of words or within words.  It is used to create melody, establish mood, call attention to important words, and point out similarities and contrasts.  

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    Posted by chloeashton on Monday December 7, 2009 at 10:01 PM