Rhetorical Devices: Alliteration

I thought that I would write a series of short articles explaining the various literary devices that we can use to enhance our public speaking.  In this case, it is about alliteration.

Alliteration is from the Latin, “ad” meaning, in this case, “more”; and “littera”, which means “letters”.  In essence, alliteration is conspicuous and obvious repetition of identical initial consonant sounds in successive or closely associated syllables within a group of words, regardless of spelling since it is about how the words sound, not how they are written.

Whilst some literary experts may accept the repetition of vowel sounds, or repetition at the end of words, as alliteration; alliteration narrowly refers to the repetition of a letter in any syllables that, according to the poem’s meter, are stressed.

Alliteration is actually part of a broader literary device known as consonance.  Consonance is a broader literary device identified by the repetition of consonant sounds at any point in a word.  Alliteration, however, is a special case of consonance where the repeated consonant sound is in the stressed syllable.  Alliteration may also refer to the use of different but similar consonants, such as alliterating “z” with “s”, such as from the medieval poem, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”.

Symmetrical alliteration is a specialised form of alliteration containing parallelism, or chiasmus.  Both parallelism and chiasmus will be explained in some detail on their own post.  In this case, the phrase must have a pair of outside end words both starting with the same sound, and pairs of outside words also starting with matching sounds as one moves progressively closer to the centre.  An often-cited example would be “rust brown blazers rule”.  In that sense, a symmetrical alliteration is similar to palindromes because of their language symmetry.

The following are works that use alliterations.

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” has many examples of alliteration.  An example would be: “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain”.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” has the following lines of alliteration:

“The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free.”

Robert Lee Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night” has: “I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet.”

William Butler Yeats’ “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” has: “I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore.”

William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” has:

“And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,

Which, when it bites and blows upon my body.”

Walter Abish’s novel, “Alphabetical Africa”, is a noted example.  The first chapter consists solely of words beginning with “A”.  The second chapter with words beginning with “B”.  This alphabetical pattern continues until chapter 26.  It then reverses for the next 25 chapters, back to “A”.

In rhetoric, alliteration can be used to move the audience emotionally.  For example, the “H” or “E” sounds can soothe; the “P” or “B” sounds seize attention.  The “S” sound instinctively implies danger, or deception due to the Biblical association with the snake in the Garden.

The emotional pull of alliteration has been used in many famous historical speeches.  The following are some excerpts of this:

John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s Inaugural Address: “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.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech”: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Barack Hussein Obama’s Inaugural Address: “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.”

Ronald Wilson Reagan’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial Address: “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.”

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “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.”