Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words. It is one of the oldest and most audible devices in English verse and prose.

Anglo-Saxon poetry relied on alliteration rather than end-rhyme as its principal structuring principle. “Beowulf” is built on lines in which stressed syllables share initial sounds. Later poets continued to use the device for emphasis, musicality, and memorability: “looking lazy at the sea” or “the furrow followed free.” Prose writers employ it more sparingly, often for rhythmic punch or ironic effect.

Alliteration draws attention to the words it links and can bind a phrase into a single memorable unit. Overused, it becomes distracting or comic. When handled with restraint it remains a subtle source of pleasure and coherence in both poetry and heightened prose. Related devices include assonance (repetition of vowel sounds) and consonance (repetition of consonant sounds within or at the ends of words).

When successive stressed syllables open with the same consonant, alliteration is at work.