Alliteration: Sentence Examples in English Literature
While reading many books, you might have often come across many figurative languages and figures of speech in our literature. This generally happens because of such literary words, from which the author can evoke emotions, feelings, thoughts, ideas and create an imaginary world for the readers.
There are many literary words, but the most commonly used are the Alliteration. You can find Alliteration in poetry, drama, novels, and some articles influenced by the author’s work.
The Significance of Alliteration in Literature
Alliteration is derived from the Latin word “Latira,” which means “letter of the alphabet.” It is a type of figure of speech where the repetition of initial consonants generates a sound of words in a sentence. You can notice that just like other literary devices, Alliteration is also used to achieve some desired effect of the writer.
The adjective form of Alliteration is alliterative. You must ensure that you put the alliterative words close to each other in a phrase, sentence, or clause to give it the required effect. With proper placement of words, you would achieve your desired effect or the rhythm that you would want to have in the composition.
Different forms of Alliteration for literature writings create aural rhythm, general, consonance, assonance, and unvoiced.
Use of Alliterations in Stories and Poems Writing
Yes, you can use alliterations in stories, but most prominently, you can use them in the poems. Generally, authors use Alliteration because they evoke feelings, thoughts, rhythm from the alliterative words. It is also used to generate emphasis or effect on the verse or paragraph. You can find examples of it in novels.
The use of Alliteration can also make some sentences catchy, memorable to the readers. Always make sure that you cannot use Alliteration in each statement. You need to aim for some specific paragraphs or sentences and use alliterations only there. If you are using alliterations in all the sentences, it won’t give you the desired effect. With alliterations, you can sound musical to your readers. It will grab the attention of the readers and make it more interesting.
Alliterations are used in “Beowulf,” an Old English epic poem written by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet. It is often cited as one of the essential pieces of Old English literature. It contains 3,182 long alliterative lines.
Sentence Examples of Interesting Alliterations
Here are some excerpts from literature where Alliteration is being used as a literary device. Take note of the italicized words for these words to make these texts alliterative.
1. Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven
“Closed my lids, and kept them close,
And the balls like pulses beat;
For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky
Lay like a load on my weary eye,
And the dead were at my feet.”
2. John Milton’s Paradise Lost
“Behemoth most significant born of earth upheaved
His vastness: Fleeced the flocks and bleating rose,
As plants: Ambiguous between sea and land
The river-horse and scaly crocodile.”
3. Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
“… his appearance: something displeasing, something down-right detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere ….”
4. Vladimir Nabokov’s Conclusive Evidence
“A moist young moon hung above the mist of a neighbouring meadow.”
5. Gregory Kirschling’s The Gargoyle
“The sibilant sermons of the snake as she discoursed upon the disposition of my sinner’s soul seemed ceaseless.”
6. Alfred Tennyson’s Sir Galahad
“I leave the plain, I climb the height;
No branchy thicket shelter yields;
But blessed forms in whistling storms
Fly o’er waste fens and windy fields.”
So what we have learned that Alliteration happens when the words with the same sound come together in the given sentence used repeatedly in a phrase or sentence. The words don’t need to be next to each other.
The alliterations can be seen in tongue twisters to make it difficult for people to spell the whole sentence correctly.
Conclusion:
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