Alliteration Examples

Alliteration is the figurative term for when a beginning consonant sound is repeated over and over in a poem or text.

Alliteration is often used to provide a certain rhythmic sound to the poetry. The repetition of a specific sound can also affect the mood. For example, a repeated "w" sound often gives a lulling mood. The repetition of a harder sound-like "p" or "b"-sets a different mood.

Alliteration is heavily used in "tongue twisters."

Examples of Alliteration:

1. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. (repeated p sound)

2. Sally sells seashells by the sea shore. (repeated s sound)

3. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. (repeated w and c/ch sounds)

4. The sly, slithering snake snuck into the shed. (repeated s sound)

5. The river rushed rapidly over the rocks. (repeated r sound)

Example of Alliteration from Literature:

1. From Romeo and Juliet: "From forth the fatal loins of these two foes . . ." (repeated f sound)

2. From "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe: "Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary" (repeated w sound)

3. William Blake's "Tyger": "burning bright," "frame thy fearful symmetry"

4. Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends": "We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow / and watch where the chalk-white arrows go" (repeated w sound)