Literature Terms 2

Alliteration: A poetic sound device: the repetition of an initial consonant sound

(Can occur at the beginning of a word or a syllable)

Example: 

Beowulf (excerpt from Episode I)

  Now Beowulf bode in the burg of the Scyldings,
leader beloved, and long he ruled
in fame with all folk, since his father had gone
away from the world, till awoke an heir,
haughty Healfdene, who held through life,
sage and sturdy, the Scyldings glad.
Then, one after one, there woke to him, to the chieftain of clansmen, children four:

What is the purpose of alliteration?

It creates:

–An emphasis of words or ideas

–A contrast of ideas

–A melodic effect; it “rolls off the tongue”

Anapest: A metrical foot consisting of two short (or unstressed) syllables followed by one long (or stressed) syllable

Like iambs (iambic), anapests can be arranged in anapestic:

–trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, etc.

Example: stressed syllables are underlined.

“The Destruction of Sennacherib” (excerpt)
Lord Byron

The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea

When the blue waves roll nightly on deep Gallilee.