Anglo-Saxon poetry depended for its pleasantness to the ear, not on rhyme as does ours, but on accent and alliteration. Alliteration means the repeating of a letter.
In translating, of course, the alliteration is very often lost.
Upon these rules of accent and alliteration the strict form of Anglo-Saxon verse was based.
At times, too, Layamon has neither rhyme nor alliteration in his lines, sometimes he has both, so that his poem is a link between the old poetry and the new.
I don't know what this - jolly old - Jaundiced Jail,' Tom had paused to find a sufficiently complimentary and expressive name for the parental roof, and seemed to relieve his mind for a moment by the strong
alliteration of this one, 'would be without you.'
"More
alliteration. No, I don't want Alec and Alonzo when I have a cold in the head.
On the side of poetical expression such imaginative figures of speech as metaphors and similes, and such devices as
alliteration, prove especially helpful.
I could see Macdona among the doctors--"Hope in Harley Street"--Mac had always a weakness for
alliteration. "Interview with Mr.
'They bring the body, and we pay the price,' he used to say, dwelling on the
alliteration - 'QUID PRO QUO.' And, again, and somewhat profanely, 'Ask no questions,' he would tell his assistants,
The
alliteration is good, and there is something in the nomenclature that gives to us as a body the sense of corporate existence: Apprentice, Mate, Master, in the ancient and hon ourable craft of the sea.
Nikita, surnamed Necator, with a sinister aptness of
alliteration! Razumov had heard of him.
All this is portrayed with humour and lightness of touch as the playful
alliteration leads the reader to expect.