poetic device: Alliteration

Alliteration is not when words start with the same letter but, rather, when the first stressed (or accented) syllable of two nearby words begin with the same consonant sound. This means that there are basically three types of alliterations:

When nearby words start with the same consonants and the same sounds, such as “dancing dogs”, or “big boys.”
When nearby words start with different consonants but the same sounds, such as “cats and kittens” or “jungle gym.”
When nearby words start with different sounds, but have the same sounds at the beginning of their first stressed syllable, such as “normal banana” (which each have an “n” sound on the first stressed syllable) or “regular karate” (which each have an “r” sound on the first stressed syllable).

These poems include alliterations. Some may have just a single alliteration within the poem, while others may include dozens of alliterations.

My Favorite Food Is Broccoli
Digging for Diamonds by Kenn Nesbitt
Digging for Diamonds
Glurp the Purple Alien
My Parents Sent Me To the Store
Monkey Dream
The Toughest Pastry Maker
My Mirror Likes to Argue
This Afternoon I Met a Slark by Kenn Nesbitt
This Afternoon I Met a Slark
I Saw a Sloth Play Soccer
I Went to the Gym
It’s Raining in My Bedroom
The Winter Olympics are Practically Here
Mr. Obvious
The Marvelous Homework and Housework Machine
Ode on a Unicycle
Do You C What I C?
Our Parents Are Planning a Party by Kenn Nesbitt
Our Parents Are Planning a Party
Charlie Has the Chicken Pox by Kenn Nesbitt
Charlie Has the Chicken Pox
If I Had a Dollar
Betty Met a Yeti
Grave Humor
Bigfoot’s Bewilderment
The Summer's Nearly Over by Kenn Nesbitt
The Summer’s Nearly Over
Bouncing Off the Windows

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