All About Alliteration
My favorite literary device
Wikipedia says,
Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. For example, “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”.
It’s obvious that alliterative phrases are supremely catchy. There’s a musicality to them that can evoke a variety of emotions — joy, wonder, slapstick humor, mystery, intrigue… I could write ad nauseam about their sheer range.
But what I love about alliteration is that it is omnipresent in all genres of literature. From Mickey Mouse to Benjamin Button, from Edgar Allan Poe in The Raven (‘Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary’) to Mary Howitt in The Spider and the Fly (“Sweet creature!” said the Spider, “you’re witty and you’re wise”)… All hail the great unifier of all things bookish — alliteration. :)
