wo or more words whose initial sounds are
identical or very similar.

"The _rich, ripe rose_ as with incense streams"

is a good example.

Through alliteration certain effects are produced which would otherwise
be impossible. Instances will occur to every reader. To quote only one
example:

"When dandelions fleck the green
And robins' songs _throb through_ the trees."

In these two lines by William Allen White, the two "th"s, though out of
place in most verse, here express the "throbbing" idea perfectly.

Alliteration at the beginning of accented syllables is very useful in
humorous verse, helping along the rhythm and binding the lines together.

The use of onomatopoetic words, words whose sound signifies the sense,
is so common that we seldom give it a thought. We have the "splash" of
water; the "bang" of a gun; the "crackle" of branches and so on
indefinitely. In verse this idea is carried a step farther. Lines are
constructed not only with the purpose of conveying a given idea, as in
prose, but with the additional end of strengthening this idea and
impressing it on the mind of the reader through the choice and
arrangement of the words.

"Up a _high hill_ he _heaves_ a _huge_ round stone."

In this the successive "h" sounds suggest the hard breathing and labor
of the ascent.

Browning imitates the sound of galloping in the meter of his ride from
Ghent to Aix.

"I sprang to the stirrup and Joris and he,
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three."

Tennyson is full of such turns as this:

"Where lay the bones of ancient men,
Old knights, and over them the sea-wind sang,
_Shrill, chill_, with flakes of foam."

The two words certainly give a most wonderful impression of the shriek
of the cold sea-wind.

Instances of this sort might be added indefinitely but these are enough
to give the general idea. As a rule the best use of any device of this
purpose is served when it is not too apparent; when it produces the
effect without calling attention to the means.

In a certain sort of languishing verse of the mystical type an effect of
quaintness and dreaminess is produced by emphasizing the last syllables
of words whose accent by right falls on a previous syllable. This is
done by pairing them with pronounced rhymes. For instance, "tears"
rhymes with "barriers," "her" with "well-water" and so on. It must be
understood that, as an attempt to rhyme, this sort of thing is not to be