Poems

Alliteration refers to the use of similar sounds to begin a sequence of words, e.g. spick and span, kith and kin, jump for joy. Alliteration is used (instead of rhyme) as a major organising device in most of the poetry of the older Germanic tongues, including Icelandic, Old Saxon, Old English, Old High German and Old High Norse, where the line is divided into two half-lines by a strong caesura, and each half-line has two strongly stressed syllables, linked by patterns of alliteration. The Old English poem ‘Beowulf’ is alliterative. The form had largely died out by 1500, though later poets often use alliteration, though more loosely. Auden is one such: ‘When you’re sick, I’ll sit at your side. / …  / When you’re ashamed, I’ll shine your shoes. / … / When you’re depressed, I’ll play you the piano.’ It is common in English speech ( kit and caboodle, dime a dozen), in advertising (‘Guinness is good for you’, ‘Don't dream it — Drive it’— Jaguar cars), and in children’s verse: Wee Willie Winkie, Milly-Molly-Mandy, and so on.