Editing Alliteration (section)

==Examples of use==

=== Poetry ===
Poets can call attention to certain words in a line of poetry by using alliteration. They can also use alliteration to create a pleasant, rhythmic effect. In the following poetic lines, notice how alliteration is used to emphasize words and to create rhythm:<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Meliyevna |first=Zebo Nizomova |date=2021 |title=Alliteration as a Literary Device |url=http://mentaljournal-jspu.uz/index.php/mesmj/article/view/110 |journal=Mental Enlightenment Scientific-Methodological Journal |volume=3 |issue=03 |pages=162–172}}</ref>

*"Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling!' ([[Walt Whitman]], "Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun")
*"They all gazed and gazed upon this green stranger, / because everyone wondered what it could mean/ that a rider and his horse could be such a 'colour- / green as grass, and greener it seemed/ than green enamel glowing bright against gold".{{efn|The original in [[Middle English]] was:{{sfn|Tolkien|Davis|1995}}<poem>For vch mon had meruayle quat hit mene myȝt
Þat a haþel and a horse myȝt such a hwe lach,
As growe grene as þe gres and grener hit semed,
Þen grene aumayl on golde glowande bryȝter.</poem>}} (232-236) (''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'', translated by [[Bernard O'Donoghue]].)

*"Some papers like writers, some like wrappers.  Are you a writer or a wrapper?"  ("Paper I" by [[Carl Sandburg]])

Alliteration can also add to the mood of a poem. If a poet repeats soft, melodious sounds, a calm or dignified mood can result. If harsh, hard sounds are repeated, on the other hand, the mood can become tense or excited.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Meliyevna |first=Zebo Nizomova |date=2021 |title=Alliteration as Literary Device |url=http://mentaljournal-jspu.uz/index.php/mesmj/article/view/110 |journal=Mental Enlightenment Scientific-Methodological Journal |volume=3 |issue=03 |pages=162–172}}</ref> In this poem, alliteration of the s, l, and f sounds adds to a hushed, peaceful mood:

*"Softer be they than slippered sleep the lean lithe deer the fleet flown deer."  ([[All in green went my love riding]] by [[E. E. Cummings]]<ref>Techniques Writers Use</ref>)

====Examples from alliterative verse====

Source:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Published Authors of Alliterative Verse |url=https://alliteration.net/authors |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=Forgotten Ground Regained |language=en}}</ref>

*"In the first age, the frogs dwelt / at peace in their pond: they paddled about ..."  ''(Moralities'' by [[W.H. Auden]])
*"Holocaust, pentecost:  what heaped heartbreak: / The tendrils of fire forthrightly tasting foundation to rooftree ..."  ''(My Grandfather's Church Goes Up'' by [[Fred Chappell]])
*"Chestnuts fell in the charred season, / Fell finally, finding room / In air to open their old cases ..."  ''(Another Reluctance'' by [[Annie Finch]])
*"Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings; / Landscape plotted & pieced -- fold, fallow, & plough ..." ''([[Pied Beauty]]'' by [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]])
*"Effortlessly at height hangs his still eye. / His wings hold all creation in a weightless quiet ..." ''([[The Hawk in the Rain]]'' by [[Ted Hughes]])
*"As one who wanders into old workings, / Dazed by the noonday, desiring coolness, Has found retreat barred by fall of rockface ..." ''(As One Who Wanders into Old Workings'' by [[C. Day Lewis]])
*"We were talking of dragons, Tolkien and I / In a Berkshire bar. The big workman / Who had sat silent and sucked his pipe / All the evening, from his empty mug ..." ''(We Were Talking of Dragons'' by [[C. S. Lewis]])
*"We set up mast and sail on that swart ship / Bore sheep aboard her, and our bodies also / Heavy with weeping, so winds from sternward / Bore us out onward with bellying canvas ..." ''(Canto I'' by [[Ezra Pound]])
*"Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising / I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing ..."  ''(Eomer's Wrath'' by [[J.R.R. Tolkien]])
*"An axe angles from my neighbor's ashcan; / It is hell's handiwork,  the wood not hickory, ..."  ''(Junk'' by [[Richard Wilbur]])
[[File:Mikado 02 - Weir Collection.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s comic opera ''[[The Mikado]]'' contains a well-known example of alliterative lyrics:{{sfn|Wren|2006|p=168}}<br>"To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,<br>In a pestilential prison, with a lifelong lock,<br>Awaiting the sensation of a [[short, sharp shock]],<br>From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!"<ref>[https://openlibrary.org/details/mikadolibrettoof00sulluoft ''The Mikado''] libretto, p. 16, Oliver Ditson Company</ref>]]

====Lines from other poems====
*"And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain" ''([[The Raven]]'' by [[Edgar Allan Poe]])
*"The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew / The furrow followed free" (''[[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]]'' by [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]])
*"I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet"  (''[[Acquainted with the Night]]'' by [[Robert Frost]]
*"I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore" ''([[The Lake Isle of Innisfree]]'' by [[W. B. Yeats]])
*"And churlish chiding of the winter's wind / Which, when it bites and blows upon my body" (from [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[As You Like It]])''
*"A pleasing calm; while broad and brown, below / Extensive harvests hang the heavy head" (''[[The Seasons (Thomson)|Autumn]]'' by [[James Thomson (poet, born 1700)|James Thomson]])

====Alliteration combined with rhyme====
*"Great Aunt Nellie and Brent Bernard who watch with wild wonder at the wide window as the beautiful birds begin to bite into the bountiful birdseed" ("Thank-You for the Thistle" by Dorie Thurston)
*"Three grey geese in a green field grazing. Grey were the geese and green was the grazing." (From the nursery rhyme ''Three Grey Geese'' by [[Mother Goose]]) 
*"Betty Botter bought a bit of butter, but she said, this butter's bitter; if I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter, but a bit of better butter will make my bitter batter better..." (from the [[tongue-twister]] rhyme ''[[Betty Botter]]'' by [[Carolyn Wells]])
*"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?" (anonymous tongue-twister rhyme)

====Music lyrics====
* "[[Helplessly Hoping]]" by [[Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young]] has rich alliteration in every verse.
* "[[Mr. Tambourine Man]]" by [[Bob Dylan]] employs alliteration throughout the song, including the lines: "Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free / Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands."
* "[[Mother Nature's Son]]" by [[The Beatles]] includes the line: "Swaying daisies sing a lazy song beneath the sun."
* "Spieluhr" by [[Rammstein]] includes a spoken line: "Das kleine Herz stand still für Stunden" (eng. "The little heart stood still for hours). 
* "Fairyland Fanfare" by [[Falconer (band)|Falconer]] has a part that alliterates the "l" over 30 times: "Live the legend, live life all alone / Longing to linger in lore / Illuminating a lane / That leads you aloft / You're lost to the lunar lure / Leave the languish / Leave lanterns of lorn / Lend lacking lustre to lies / Liberate the laces / Of life for the lone / Lest lament yet alights“
* "[[Werewolves of London]]" by [[Warren Zevon]] includes the line "Little old lady got mutilated late last night."

===Rhetoric===

Literary alliteration has been used in various spheres of public speaking and rhetoric. It can also be used as an artistic constraint in oratory to sway the audience to feel some type of urgency,<ref>{{cite news|last=Bitzer|first=Lloyd|title=The Rhetorical Situation|year=1968|publisher=Philosophy and Rhetoric}}</ref> or another emotional effect. For example, S sounds can imply danger or make the audience feel as if they are being deceived.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://udleditions.cast.org/craft_ld_alliteration.html |title=Literary Devices: Alliteration |work= Author's Craft |access-date=2014-09-26}}</ref> Other sounds can likewise generate positive or negative responses.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Team |first=N. F. I. |date=2022-03-04 |title=Alliteration - Everything You Need To Know |url=https://www.nfi.edu/alliteration/ |access-date=2023-10-24 |website=NFI |language=en-US}}</ref> Alliteration serves to "intensify any attitude being signified".<ref name=Lanham>{{cite book|last=Lanham|first=Richard|title=A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms|year=1991|publisher=University of California Press|location=Los Angeles|isbn=978-0-520-27368-9|page=131}}</ref>{{rp|6–7}}

An example is in John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, in which he uses alliteration 21 times. The last paragraph of his speech is given as an example here.

"Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on Earth God's work must truly be our own." — [[John F. Kennedy]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://englishleaflet.com/4-things-that-made-jfks-inaugural-address-so-effective/ |title=4 things that made JFK's Inaugural Address so effective |work=}}</ref>

==== Examples of alliteration from public speeches ====
* "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." — [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blog.flocabulary.com/i-have-a-dream-speech-analysis-lesson-plan/ |title=I Have A Dream Speech Analysis Lesson Plan |work=[[Flocabulary]] |date=2012-01-11}}</ref>
* "We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths—that all of us are created equal—is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth". — [[Barack Obama]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rhetoriciansnotebook.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/obamas-alliteration/ |title=Obama's Alliteration |work=The Rhetorician's Notebook |date=2013-01-21}}</ref>
* "And our nation itself is testimony to the love our veterans have had for it and for us. All for which America stands is safe today because brave men and women have been ready to face the fire at freedom's front." — [[Ronald Reagan]], Vietnam Veterans Memorial Address.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.americanrhetoric.com/figures/alliteration.htm|title=Rhetorical Figures in Sound: Alliteration|work=americanrhetoric.com}}</ref>
* "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". — [[Abraham Lincoln]], [[Gettysburg Address]].
* "Patent portae; proficiscere!" ("The gates are open; depart!") — [[Cicero]], ''[[Catiline Orations|In Catilinam]]'' 1.10.
* "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam." ("Furthermore, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed") — [[Cato the Elder]]
* "Bleach blonde bad-built butch body" — [[Jasmine Crockett]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kurtz |first=Judy |date=2024-05-21 |title=Jasmine Crockett moves to trademark 'bleach blonde bad built butch body' |url=https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4677117-jasmine-crockett-trademark-bleach-blonde-bad-built-butch-body-marjorie-taylor-greene/ |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

Translation can lose the emphasis developed by this device. For example, in the accepted Greek text of Luke 10:41<ref>''The Greek New Testament'', 4th rev ed, ed. Kurt Aland, et al (Stuttgart: UBS, 1983), 247 n 7.</ref> the repetition and extension of initial sound are noted as Jesus doubles Martha's name and adds an alliterative description: Μάρθα Μάρθα μεριμνᾷς (Martha, Martha, merimnas). This is lost in the English NKJ and NRS translations "Martha, Martha, you are ''w''orried and distracted by many things."