Find out what ALITERATION is

Image: Greek and Latin roots

Know how to identify the different rhetorical figures it is important when analyzing and understanding a literary text. Is it difficult for you to do it? Well don't worry. From a PROFESSOR we will help you understand all the literary resources with an exact definition and many examples. In today's lesson we will know what is alliteration and examples very specific so that you can identify it. Do not miss it!

Index

1. Definition of alliteration
2. Uses of alliteration
3. Onomatopoeia, a false friend of alliteration
4. Examples of tongue twister alliteration
5. Examples of alliteration in verse
6. Examples of alliteration in poetry

Alliteration is a literary device that consists of the repetition of the same sound in the same sentence. With the repetition of this sound, alliteration seeks to produce a certain effect on the reader. The usual thing is the repetition of syllables to produce a sound result. But we also find alliterations in which only the vowels have been repeated.

Example:

• Under the light wing of the slight fan. In this case, the sounds [l] and [b] are repeated.

What do we use alliteration for?

Alliteration is used with the intention of embellishing a text, whether in prose or poetry, as it achieves a loudness and musicality effect beautiful. Likewise, alliteration, due to the repetition of sounds, can also suggest images associated with the senses.

However, alliterative verse originally had a very formal structure and was used especially in Germanic verse.

Example:

• In the silence you only heard the whisper of the bees that sounded, Garcilaso de la Vega. Repeating the sound [s] consecutively would be a way of representing the sound that bees make.
• To the winged souls of the roses, Miguel Hernández. Here we see the same effect. The repetition of [s] reminds us of the sound of wings.

But we don't just use alliteration in poetry. This literary device is also often used in tongue twisters.

Image: ieexamples

Alliteration can be used in poetry and verse as well as in tongue twisters.

Tongue twister alliteration

As a general rule, when alliteration is used in a tongue twister it is to teach or convey a certain message to children. In these cases the consonant initial of all words in the sentence.

Example:

• Three sad tigers ate wheat in a wheat field.

Alliteration in poetry

As we have advanced, alliteration in poetry is used to embellish writing. In these cases, a single phoneme or very similar phonemes are usually repeated to create that feeling of warmth.

Example:

• Sighs escape through her strawberry mouth, Ruben Dario. In this fragment of the poem we can see that the poet intended to highlight the sound [s] to highlight the sighs of the princess.

Alliteration in verse

Used in courtly poetry, it is characterized by using at least three words that begin with the same letter in the same verse.

Example:

• My mom pampers me. Here we see that all the words begin with the sound [m] to highlight the word mama.

Image: Youtube

On many occasions, alliteration is often confused with onomatopoeia, another of the literary resources that is important to know since they are very different concepts. Alliteration is the repetition of a sound while onomatopoeia represents the writing of a specific action like, for example, barking.

Example:

• Woof, it is an onomatopoeia because it literally represents the barking of a dog and does not seek to embellish the text.

Onomatopoeia are usually very common in fables.

Tongue twisters, in addition to being fun, are usually very educational. Hence, they are so popular. Let's get to know some examples of tongue twister alliteration.

• The gold and the Moor promise in the tower of gold.
• The master loves the housekeeper but the housekeeper does not love the master.
• Three sad trapeze artists run with three pieces of rags.
• Pepe combs his hair, Pepe chops potatoes, Pepe eats a pineapple, Pepe has few freckles.
• There comes he who came to drink wine has come.
• Pablito nailed a little nail, what little nail did Pablito nail?
• Wagons and wagons run down the road.
• The sky is bricked, who will unbrick it? The unbricker that unlocks it, a good unloader it will be.

Image: ieexamples

In verse we also find some interesting and sonorous alliterations that carry in the popular culture centuries.

• The brief flight of a green flight.
• Denis really likes anise.
• Walker, there is no path, the path is made by walking. Antonio Machado.
• The sailboat with the purple sails flames like a bird that flies free.
• Chillería trinkets for children.
• The dragonfly wanders from the vague illusion. Ruben Dario.
• Josefina takes the bag out in the sun to dry.
• Her mouth that kisses her erases the sadness.
• Final, fleeting, fugitive, fires melted in your founded skin.
• I want to be born again by making the beautiful rhyme moan with pleasure.

But if there is a genre in which alliteration appears with some frequency, that is the poetry. We know some of the most famous examples.

• As long as he sits, the soul laughs / Without the lips laughing. Gustavo Adolfo Becquer.
• In the silence they only heard / The whisper of the bees that sounded. Garcilaso de la Vega.
• Clear hours of the morning / in which a thousand golden bugles / say the divine target / Hail the celestial sonorous sun. Ruben Dario.
• A snow sails slippery / in the radiance of reflective eyes / of successive sonorous silences / and of the sun on the salt wet for you. Marina by Jaime Siles.

Once learned, alliteration is one of the easiest literary devices to find. However, if you are still not sure, do not hesitate to leave us a comment with all your doubts. Likewise, we recommend you to know other literary resources through UNPROFESOR.com to be able to understand one hundred percent all the texts that you propose.

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If you want to read more articles similar to Alliteration: what it is and examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Literary concepts.

• Domínguez Caparrós, José (1988): Metrics and Poetics, Madrid, Notebooks of the UNED
• García Barrientos, José Luis (1998): Rhetorical figures, Madrid, Arco / Books