alliteration is the repetition of sounds in a sequence of words used for emphasis, such as "bad boy." Alliteration generally refers to repeated consonant sounds or those at the beginning of stressed syllables, but has also been used by some critics to refer to repeated vowel sounds. In “Harlem,” Langston Hughes uses imperfect alliteration in his first line: “What happens to a dream deferred?” In using alliteration within the first line, Hughes is really drawing attention to the importance of those two words. One reason Hughes may have wanted to emphasize that phrase is because it is the first (and last) time the literal topic of the poem is mentioned, so it helps it to stick in your head; additionally, the alliteration highlights the topic of the poem--everything else in the poem is figurative language being compared to this "dream deferred." To write about alliteration, you would need to look at the words and try to figure out why the author would want to emphasize those specific words. In addition, you need to make sure you are connecting the significance of the words and phrases to the theme of your paper.

6 0

3 years ago

Read 2 more answers