Question

Define the poetry term Alliteration.

Answer 1

Repetition of the initial (first) sounds or letters of words close together in the poem.

Explanation:

Repetition of initial consonant sounds usually in the beginning of the word in a two or more neighboring words or syllables. Alliteration is the Latin word which is derived from the Latin word 'Latira'. It means a a letter or alphabet.

Example: Bitty makes the bitter butter better. In this sentence (b) sound occurs constantly forming an  alliteration. It must be understood that alliteration does not depend upon letters but on sounds. 'Christy got a cigarette chase', in this sentence the letter(c) is having different sounds and hence it is not an example of alliteration.