Re: Poetry: alliteration

> Date:         Wed, 5 Jan 2000 23:48:40 -0300
> From: FFlores <fflores@...>
> 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?
The basic idea is to have several stressed words with the same initial
sound close together. What 'same' and 'close' means depends on the
type of verse. And I suppose it becomes a genre the moment people
decide on a set of rules.

Another example, from the Norse Hávamál:

   deyr Fé
   deyr Frendr
   deyr Sjalfr it Sami
   Eitt veit Ek
   at Áldri deyr
   Dómr of Dauðan hvern

   [Cattle dies/kin dies/self I die the same//
    One thing know I/that never dies/judgement of dead man each]

The upper case initials are the ones that alliterate (all vowels
alliterate with each other). In this mode (fornyrðislág) there has to
be alliteration on two or three words in the first two lines, a
different one on two in the third line, and repeat for the second
triple --- and it's bad style to have stressed words that do not
participate.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)