Stylistics
Alliteration
Alliteration is a stylistic device of sound-writing consisting in the repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds in adjacent words or lines for the sake of intensifying the expressiveness and musicality of poetic speech. The repetition of consonants creates an additional sound pattern that may imitate phenomena of reality (rustling, rumbling, ringing), emphasise semantically important words, lend the line intonational unity and emotional colouring. Alliteration is one of the most ancient means of organising verse — in Germanic poetry it even replaced rhyme as a structural principle. In Ukrainian poetry alliteration was masterfully applied by Pavlo Tychyna, who created sound imagery. Together with assonance, alliteration forms sound-writing (the instrumentation of verse) — an important level of the phonetic organisation of a literary text.
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Meaning, origins and distinction — side by side.
Distinction
Two devices of sound-writing differing in the type of repeated sound. Alliteration is the repetition of identical or similar CONSONANTS in adjacent words, creating a harder sound pattern able to imitate noise, rumbling, movement. Assonance is the repetition of VOWELS, yielding melodiousness, softness, lyrical fluidity. Together they form the instrumentation of verse; apart, they set opposite acoustic impressions.
