Alliteration

Alliteration

Alliteration occurs when the same initial consonant sound of words is repeated in close succession. For alliteration to occur, these consonant sounds must occur in close proximity to one another. So, in the tongue-twister “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” the 'p' consonant present at the beginning of these words is an instance of alliteration. Don't always rely upon the spelling of words to indicate whether a grouping of words is an instance of alliteration. Words like fish and physics are alliteration while words like ten and thin are not. As always, it is important for the readers of poetry recite the poem to appreciate the artistic merits of the poet.

Now, lets examine Theodore Waltz's “My Papa's Waltz”

The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.

This poem does an excellent job of illustrating how effective alliteration is at getting across a certain type of feeling. Sound devices like alliteration, consonance, and assonance do not occur by accident, poets use these types of devices to enhance the language's effect on the reader. Anyway, back to the poem at hand, the first thing that I would like to point out is that a waltz is a type of ballroom dance. Secondly, what is this poem about? From the opening line the poet informs readers that his father has been drinking. The last line in that stanza indicates that the poet's father's waltz (steps) was “not easy”. So apparently this man is walking with great difficulty. Throughout the rest of this poem the poet continues to describe his drunken father leading him around in this waltz. So were the father and son really dancing? No, the poet is using the notion of the waltz as a representation of his father's drinking habits. In the waltz, two people join hands and dance around in a circular pattern. The poet is using this circular image of the waltz as a representation of how his father drunkenness was a reoccurring pattern.

Now that I've described my interpretation of the poem, lets examine those highlighted moments of alliteration. Notice the pattern of alliteration, the 'w' 'w' followed 'm' 'm' and so forth. The alliteration of this poem is used to imitate two people waltzing. The father takes a step left (your first 'w'), the boy takes a step (the second 'w'). So through alliteration the poet quite cleverly uses language as dance steps. This of course adds to the general theme set by the poem's title.

Assignment

Today you are going to read Percy Bysshe Shelly's “The Cloud” and mark instances of alliteration. When you finished with this task email the document back to me.


Download Percy Bysshe Shelly's “The Cloud”