Julie Helms
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Alliteration
Since I am new to poetry, I did some research before writing my alliteration poem for the current contest. My understanding from what I read is that alliteration is a repeating first consonant sound, not necessarily first letter.
So Toy Truck (T, Tr) would not be true alliteration.
Tiny Tunes (T,T)would be fine as would Naughty Knots (N,N).
Reading through the selections in the current contest, I noticed most people are not following that.
Any expert opinions to offer this?
I am not trying to be a needle butt, I just have a new fascination with playing with words!
karenina
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RE: Alliteration
Message edited:
It is my understanding that alliteration depends on the same "sound" -- not the same letter.
"Eating cereal can be so sloppy it makes me psycho"
--Is Alliterative, even though
cereal
sloppy
psycho
begin with three different letters.
Toy truck is alliteration... (both "hard" T)
That toy truck?
The "Th" sound would not be part of the alliteration...
Does this help?
(Sorry about the spacing!)
Julie Helms
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Rank: 24
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RE: Alliteration
I like that cereal sentence! The thing I looked up had mentioned blends as being different (T, TR). But it's totally possible it's just not a hard and fast rule.
RE: Alliteration
I think Karenina's response nailed it and the sloppy cereal example was great.
Yes, it is the sound that counts, not the actual letter. I would also contend that the repeated sound doesn't have to be at the beginning of a word...
"That little tart..." supplies a T sound in beginning, ending and middle positions, though the Th right at the beginning doesn't contribute.
BenThrone
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RE: Alliteration
I would concur with Karenina. The rule Steve refers to applies to consonance, not alliteration. Consonance is the repetition of the same consonant sound irrespective of where in the words it appears. Assonance follows the same rule as consonance, only in this case it refers to vowels. Alliteration refers to a repeated consonant sound occurring at the beginning of a word.
RE: Alliteration
Totally depends on the audience/context. For spoken/sung, make it sound the same: In the sequel to "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - the Musical", the savage cereal tsunami sank Cecil's xylophone psychology seminar.
Whereas for visual presentation, it might be better for it to look the same: Karl's knife kut kwickly.
