Alliteration

CRAFT TERM

Oct 26

Written By The Poetry Lab

Alliteration is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

via Oxford English Dictionary

Example

Though alliteration is often associated with writing for children, such as:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

don't discount it's effects in a well-craft poem:

just these reeling sets of restless ultrasounds
exist, the bats ears of jade
turned toward the ticking haze; - from Alphabet by Inger Christensen

Prompt

Using alliteration, make lists of things you associate with Spring. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

rocky road
kissing cousins
jumping jacks
no nonsense
tough talk
quick question
money matters
picture perfect
House Hunters
Coca Cola
Dunkin' Donuts
Hip Hop
Dippin' Dots
mall madness
silent sun

Select 10 concepts from your list and write a poem that incorporates them all. See if you can retain at least 3 moments of alliteration. Alternately, try to break open some of your alliterations. "Tough talk" may become "tough nonsense" or "kissing cousins" may become "kissing hunters." Wrangle yourself a wild world with language!

Resource written by:

Featured

Danielle Mitchell

is an intersectional feminist, poet, and teaching artist. She is host of The Poetry Lab Podcast and a 2023 artist grantee for the California Creative Corps. Danielle is the author of Makes the Daughter-in-Law Cry, winner of the Clockwise Chapbook Prize. Her poems have appeared in journals such as Hayden’s Ferry Review, Vinyl, Four Way Review, Transom, Connotation Press, and others. She is a proud co-founder of The Poetry Lab and currently serves as the organization’s Executive Director.

Find her at imaginarydani.com | 📚 Read More by Danielle | 🎧 Listen to The Poetry Lab Podcast