Alliteration
the repeated use of the same letter at the beginnings of two or more words or syllables in the same line or successive lines of poetry. It was a leading feature in the poetry of Beowulf and other Anglo-Saxon authors, and is still a source of harmony in modern verse. A stanza from Tennyson makes this clear:
The splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.
And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.
Children are fond of alliteration. "Goosie, goosie, gander," "Bye, baby bunting," and "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers," are specimens of juvenile alliteration. Peter Poundtext, Wee Willie Winkie, Pied Piper, Tom Tucker, and Simple Simon are alliterative.
Volume I · Aiton’s Encyclopedia