Read the passage. But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as
holy and enchanted As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon lover! In “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which poetic sound device echoes the human sound that is described in these lines? A. the assonance between “green” and “cedarn”
Answer: D. the alliteration between “woman” and “wailing.
Alliteration occurs when the initial sounds of successive or closely associated syllables is repeated. These sounds are usually identical, and tend to be consonant. In this case, the initial sounds of "woman" and "wailing" are very similar, and the author is repeating them in order to remind us of the sound of the human wailing. Alliteration also provides rhythm to a poem.
