Alliteration

Al*lit`er*a"tion (?), n. [L. ad + litera letter. See Letter.] The repetition of the same letter at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals; as in the following lines: -

Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved
His vastness.
Milton.

Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields.
Tennyson.

☞ The recurrence of the same letter in accented parts of words is also called alliteration. Anglo-Saxon poetry is characterized by alliterative meter of this sort. Later poets also employed it.

In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne,
I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe were.
P. Plowman.