Re: Poetry: alliteration

On Wed, 5 Jan 2000, FFlores wrote:

> I'd like to know what alliterative verse is. I have a
> nebulous idea of sounds being echoed throughout a
> poem, but what are the rules? When does this 'echo'
> stop being a simple poetic device to become a genre?
>
> All this is because of an alliterative poem I read, in
> Tolkien's _Unfinished Tales_, 'The Istari':
>
>   Wilt thou learn the lore / that was long secret
>   of the Five that came / from a far country?
>
> etc. If any of you can give another example, I'd be grateful.
> I understand that OE poetry was based on alliteration, am
> I right? I'm trying to produce some of this in Draseléq, since
> sheer metrics and/or rhyme don't favour my muse...
Old English alliteration and meter is complicated.  Approximately, it
consists of four stressed units per line, with a caesura between them (a
pause in the meter).  Three of the four stressed units alliterate.  If I
remember correctly, the second and final stressed units *must* alliterate.
Could be wrong on that.

Alliteration, very simply, is the repetition of sounds.  This can be
broken into either consonence or assonance.  In consonance, a consonant
sound is repeated:

rare is the rage // of random delight,
hungry the hope // of hoary despair.

This is initial illiteration -- the first sound of the words alliterates.
You can also have internal illiteration, whcih is much more subtle:

untie my truth // my tongue unbind

The rule is that usually the first sound of the stressed syllable of a
word alliterates.  Here, unTIE.

Now, assonance is "vowel rhyme".  This can be initial, but usually aren't
(in OE poetry, all vowels are considered to alliterate).

An example of assonance:

I kissed, audaciously, your jaw.
          ^^                 ^^

Or:

over my hope, o, heavens, arch

--Pat