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Alliteration

by
Al Rocheleau

 

Alliteration is a sound device (like rhyme, its cousin) that can add much beauty to a poem, either in fixed for free form. It is a repetition of single sounds (whereas rhyme is repetition of several sounds blended). It occurs most often at the beginning of words in a line or lines ("love's lead laurel" -- all the l's) but also elsewhere in words ("benign, ignored or nullified" -- the n's).

Both of those above examples of alliteration come under the "subdivision" of consonance, meaning consonant sounds that repeat. Vowel sounds that repeat come under the term assonance (something like "his vague, slate and aching eyes" -- check the a's).

Like any good decorative device, alliteration can be easily overdone. So USE ALLITERATION SPARINGLY. Just like rhyme, too much turns the cake into "all frosting."

Before:

Pompeii's frozen, frantic forms,
fill and frame a thousand furrows,
forgotten.

Instead, how about:

Pompeii's frozen forms, a thousand, 
framed in their happenstance,
harmed and harmless,
wait for nothing.

The f's are pruned a bit (down to 3 from 6), and slightly broken up, so the effect is not so relentless. Also mixed in was a group of 3 h's, giving the reader another twist. But as always, the image, and the statement, is more important than the tricks of the language. 

Alliteration is a terrific tool for your toolbox, especially after you get the somewhat easier "hang" of consonance and then start to delve into clustering vowels to create light or dark effects (the "assonance" part). As with rhyme, be judicious in your use of alliteration -- but have fun making poems that reflect the beauty of the device.

 

Al Rocheleau has been a full-time staffer for the Poetry: Body Shop in the Writer's Block area of The Amazing Instant Novelist (AIN) since early 1996 (Keyword: NOVEL on AOL). He also is on the Editorial Board (for Poetry) at AIN, and writes the regular instructional column, "Poet's Place," for AIN's The Write Stuff member newsletter. 

Al has published more than sixty poems in magazines and journals in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Publications include Nedge: The Northeast Journal, Outerbridge, Pennsylvania English, Mobius, Artisan: A Journal of Craft, and Haight Ashbury Literary Journal; in these, his work has appeared alongside noted contemporary poets like Lyn Lifshin and John Tagliabue. A 64-poem collection, A Granite Symphony will be published by Alpha Beat Press this year. (Alpha Beat Press has published work by Allen Ginsberg, Diane Wakoski, Gary Snyder, and Charles Bukowski.) A second, new collection, Munchkinland and Other Poems, was recently completed.

For the past two years Al has co-hosted a poetry chat/workshop at Orca's Place (a former Atlantic Monthly site), and also, as his "real" job and livelihood, edits and publishes a popular managed care-related journal for providers of alternative health care. He resides in Orlando, Florida with his wife Georgette, and three children. 

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