Let's consider what alliteration is. Alliteration

Alliteration (from Latin al - for, k and littera - letter). When we talk about alliteration, we often forget that there are many words and few sounds in the language. In Sweden, they even resorted to the help of a computer, which, when there are two identical letters in a line of poetry, lights up an alliteration signal. Say any phrase. The simplest one. And the same sounds will surely be found in it, but this is not yet evidence of alliteration. After all, we do not notice many of the repetitions, because they create a sound background that is usual for our hearing. But alliteration is audible repetitions of consonant sounds of speech, serving as one of the stylistic means of aesthetic expressiveness. It is inherent mainly in artistic speech (and is often discernible in it). But not only. So, it was brilliantly used by famous lawyers and orators. The authors of articles, reviews, notes do not neglect it either. When K. Vanshenkin writes: “There are poets who fall under someone else’s intonation - like a train,” we notice that successful consonances give the phrase a touch of an easy-to-remember aphorism. This feature of alliteration is perfectly realized in proverbs, sayings, riddles. "Old age is not joy, and death is not greed."

Alliteration has existed in the arsenal of means of fiction since ancient times, and it has always been comprehended by means of poetic rather than prosaic speech. The saturation of prose consonances is regarded as an abuse and most often manifests itself in representatives of literary movements who professed the cult of form. When making emotional statements, alliteration in prose is undoubtedly appropriate: “Man is created for happiness, like a bird for flight” (V. Korolenko).

In poetry, alliteration, like any other means artistic expression, Is a hidden, internal lever, a secret bell, which can deafen, if it is carried away excessively. Once in a collection of poets K. Balmont read his poems:

The shore, the storm, the shore beats
Black canopy, alien to the charm ...

As I. Bunin recalls, in the dead silence, instead of enthusiasm, only the question sounded: "What kind of canyon is this and what kind of charms is he alien to?" It is curious that the poetic phraseology of that time knew many verbal images symbolizing freedom from the mundane, death. The same Bunin, in his magnificent poem "The Shore", used his euphemism to designate the coffin - "white boat", which, naturally, was also indifferent to the charm of life. The Black Canoe is no better or worse, but alliteration in itself has sunk it.

It is believed that alliteration sets off only the most important words. It is not always so. In poetic speech, each word strives for consonance:

Electric train wires drew
Weightless cubes in the sky.
(D. Samoilov)

However, the requirement of the norm is legitimate. "I," Mayakovsky shared his experience, "I resort to alliteration for framing, for even more emphasis on a word that is important to me."
In such cases, poets achieve impressive expressiveness:

I love your pale face, sad Selena,
Your hopeless gaze accompanying me ...

This Bunin alliteration on "l" creates, as it were, the musical italics of the most emotionally colored word - Selena, which is immediately emphasized by the next line, which does not contain this sound.
With the help of alliteration, it is impossible to express other feelings and thoughts than those expressed verbally, but thanks to it we perceive words more sharply.

Throwing up the rainbow at once,
Reducing the heat of the sun
Friendly rain behind the car
I ran three miles ... —

we read at Tvardovsky's, and it seems to us that we hear the sound of rain and the rustling of tires.

Alliteration links the words in a verse or in adjacent verses with openwork ligature, less often in a stanza, and in some cases and in the whole poem, stylistically cementing it into a monolith of feeling and thought:

The entire poem by N. Zabolotsky is permeated with repetitions of "l", "r", "b" and other bizarre combinations of sounds. Subordinated to the high skill of the poet, they give rise to us quite definite associations, shading the feeling of quiet, tender love for native land... In the lines about the poet's sweet soul of Moscow nature, which is "more modest and simpler" than the magnificent nature of Adjara, alliteration is also "more modest and simpler", without the violent, frenzied sounds of the surf and the copper rumbling of pipes and timpani.

There are no rules for alliterating, because it is an art. And therefore they are very jealous of him. Observations of L. I. Timofeev (see: Voprosy literatury. 1977. No. 6) over versions of poems by Pushkin, Blok and Mayakovsky showed that in one of five cases poets replaced words in search of the most euphonious version, but ... but this was done not to the detriment of the vital truth of the word, which was above all for them and led, if necessary, to the rejection of alliteration.

To express the author's thought, the image of life in the language, means of artistic expression are used. They serve to create a picture of people's lives, help readers feel and imagine what is depicted with the help of words.

Means of expressiveness convey the author's attitude to the depicted. The main sphere of their use is the language of works of art. In works of fiction, means of expression are based on special techniques for using the word.

These are metaphors and epithets, and synecdoches, comparisons and personifications that refer to tropes. We propose to understand what alliteration is, what it is for, because this technique is often used by authors.

In addition to tropes, the means of artistic expression are the methods of sound organization of the literary text in prose and poetry.

At one time, the master of symbolism V. Bryusov wrote: "Believe in the sound of words: the meaning of secrets is in them."

The phonetic system of the Russian language is characterized by flexibility with special expressiveness. The meaning of any spoken thought is perceived in the sound composition. Therefore, even the sound of a word takes on a special meaning.

In artistic speech, writers also use the technique of sound writing, in which the sound structure of speech is skillfully organized: words that are similar in sound are selected, these sounds, masterfully combined, when scored, resemble the depicted phenomena.

It is known that in Russian there are much more consonant sounds: 37 consonants versus 6 vowel phonemes. It turns out that the consonants in the language carry the main function for distinguishing the meaning of what is said. Sound repetitions of consonants and vowels in any language are used to enhance the expressiveness of speech and writing.

Russian language provides ample opportunities for the use of sound writing for authors writing in their native Russian language.

Comparison of alliteration and assonance

The repetition of the same or similar sounding consonants is called alliteration in the literature. Why is alliteration a common type of repetition of sounds?

What is alliteration, Wikipedia explains and defines that it is the repetition of the same or homogeneous consonants in a poem, giving it a special sonic expressiveness. It was used even in the works of ancient writers: "Trumpets are blowing in Novyegrad, there are banners in Putivl" ("The Lay of Igor's Campaign").

By repeating the consonants [t] and [s], the expressiveness is enhanced, the unknown author brings anxiety to the reader.

Here are some more examples from "Lay ...":

"On the heels of the flood of the filthy pl'ky Polovtsy" - in this passage there are many voiceless consonants [n], [t], [k], [w]. Their repetition conveyed in the text a picture of the movement of the heavily armed forces of the Polovtsians.

In another example, "The sabers are sharpened, they themselves jump like gray powers." The sibilant consonants [h], [c] help to clearly represent the rapidly galloping warriors.

Alliteration examples

The Russian system of sounds makes it possible to use alliteration in poetic speech.

Subtle vibrations of sounds are widely used by Russian poets to convey the meaning of what has been said to the reader.

Here are Pushkin's alliterated lines:

The hiss of frothy glasses

And the punch is a flame blue.

The repetition of the same voiceless consonants [п] with hissing [w] gives a picture of glasses with hissing champagne, the expressiveness and musical sound of poetic lines are enhanced.

Take Pushkin's famous poem "Winter Evening". In the line "The storm covers the sky with darkness, whirling snow whirlwinds" are dominated by [f], [z], [v], [p], readers seem to hear the howling of a snow storm on a winter evening, there is tension with anxiety.

We hear the same sound in A. Pushkin's "Poltava".

Throwing piles of bodies on a pile, (r, r, rd, d)

Cast iron balls everywhere (w, p, h, f, s)

They jump between them, strike, (f, r, n, h)

They dig ashes and hiss in the blood. (n, x, p, t, p, k, p, w)

The explosive [p] dominates here, especially in the first line, in the second line there is an abundance of hissing with dull sounds. In the following lines, sibilants with a dominant sound [p] are persistently repeated.

The alternation of growling [r] with the deaf and hissing recreates a picture of a human massacre, when cannonballs hiss all around, cannonade thunders from cannons.

Alliteration example

F. Tyutchev was a master of sound writing:

The East was turning white ... The rook was rolling,

The sail sounded merrily!

Like an overturned sky

The sky was trembling under us

The East was reddening ... She prayed.

Throwing back the bedspread with curls ...

In this poem by F. Tyutchev, [l] is repeated, it comes about the sky, a boat with a sail. In the sound [л] you can hear something gentle, the babbling of a wave, a reflection of the trembling sky on the water.

We find the same repetition [l] in another poetic work of Tyutchev, which conveys the summer riot of nature with gentle warm rain:

Lil warm summer rain- his jets

The leaves sounded merrily.

In Tyutchev's "Spring Thunder", one can feel how consonant phonemes "thunder" [r], [p], [b].

Important! Alliteration was widely used in folklore; repetitions of the same consonants can be observed in Russian proverbs and sayings.

Sound writing by the poets of the Silver Age

The phenomenon of alliteration was widely used by the poets who worked in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. This artistic technique is easy to find in the works of many authors of this period:

Bryusov;
Block;
Tsvetaeva;
Balmont.

Poets Silver Age considered poetic language a magic, a magic spell.

Their poems fascinate with the music of the verse, make you penetrate into the mysterious riddle of the spoken poetic word, although it is not always clear to the reader.

Let's take an excerpt from F. Sologub:

And two deep glasses

Made of crimson glass

You substituted for the light bowl

And lila sweet foam.

Leela, leela, leela, rocked,

Two body crimson glasses,

Whiter than a lily, alee lala

Bela was you and ala.

Here the poet used the sound repetition of the consonant phoneme [л]. Although the meaning is incomprehensible, but it attracts, bewitches, makes you listen. The association on [l] can be represented by pictures of affection, love, kissing with delicate shades of scarlet and white.

The poets of the Silver Age believed that the main thing in the Russian language and in poetic speech is sound, they tried to enchant the reader with sound, its melodiousness.

In K. Balmont's poem "Reeds", the repetition of the hissing [w] helps to imagine the night rustling and rustling of reeds, a barely audible whisper.

Midnight sometimes in the wilderness

Barely audible, noiselessly, the reeds rustle.

An example of repetition of consonants in a poem

Let us recall the lines from M. Tsvetaeva's poem about Blok “the clicking of the night hooves”. The heroic motive is reinforced by the presence of hissing and explosive in this line, they help the reader to imagine the movement, the clatter of hooves on the pavement.

Immediately in the next line, the combination [gr] continues: “... big name thine thunders ... ", which represents the image of the poet - the winner human souls with his imperious and powerful creativity. The sound [r] is explosive, sharp, imperious, associated with the beat of a drum, a thunderstorm, a whirlwind.

Here are examples from creativity. To reveal the state of mind of the heroine, A. Akhmatova in the poem "My voice is weak" uses sound writing as an expressive means.

The use of voiced consonants [l], [n] with the assonance in [e] conveys the lightness, calmness, feelings that the heroine experiences after separation from her beloved.

Akhmatova's "Song of the Last Evening" describes parting in autumn evening... Usually in the fall there is a feeling of loss before the winter frosts, nature seems to fall asleep until next spring. The heroine also says goodbye to her beloved. The atmosphere of an autumn farewell evening is conveyed by the use of hissing phonemes.

In the works of V. Mayakovsky there are many examples of alliteration:

March! So that the time

They burst with nuclei.

To the old days

So that the wind

Only tangle of hair.

Alliteration in this passage in [p] allows the reader to imagine the chased rhythm of the march, the dynamics of the revolutionary struggle.

"Horror squeezed a groan from iron ...": with a special set of consonants, the poet V. Mayakovsky conveys the horror of the loss of the great leader of the revolution V. Lenin. This is what alliteration means for Mayakovsky.

Sound writing in prose

Sound repetitions as a means of expressiveness are also used in prose works.

"In a white cloak with a bloody lining, a shuffling cavalry gait, in the early morning of the fourteenth of the spring month of Nisan, the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, entered the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great."

These are lines from the famous Bulgakov novel. Here the reader hears the rhythm of the procurator's majestic gait, the echo of his shuffling footsteps echoing in the hall with a high colonnade.

Combinations of voiced consonants with voiceless consonants enhance the expressiveness of the description. The sound [p] is repeated 14 times, the sound is sharp, explosive, conveying authority, anxiety and tension. Even in the name, the author used the alliteration to [n] - Procurator Pontius Pilate.

In works contemporary poets you can find sound repeats to enhance expressiveness:

The rain rustled softly, in a singsong voice,

Watering the yard and the roof of the house ...

In this excerpt S. Marshak with the help of sound painting draws a picture of nature during the rain. The repetition of hissing voiced consonants in combination clearly recreates the sound of rain pouring down on the roof of the house.

We read the "Reserve" by V. Vysotsky:

How many of them are in the bushes - there are so many of them in the thickets,

Roaring roaring, roaring roaring,

How many running - so many lying

In the wilds and bushes, in groves and thickets ...

From a fragment of the poem it is clear that it is permeated with the repetition of hissing consonants, the expressiveness is enhanced, a terrible picture of the extermination of animals is created.

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Let's summarize

A person lives in a world of different sounds. They affect a person, causing associations with images. Sound writing and phonetic organization of words should be inextricably linked with the content of the poetic work, only then the poem will sparkle with vivid figurativeness.

Alliteration is repetition of consonants or a set of consonant sounds, which gives a special sound expressiveness and imagery of artistic speech, mainly a poem; the main element of phonics.

With alliteration, the frequency of consonant sounds in a particular passage or in the entire composition is greater in comparison with the average language, for example: "We grow up to a hundred years without old age ..." (V.V. Mayakovsky, poem "Good!", 1927).

The use of alliteration in poetry

Alliteration in versification is used as an original stylistic means of increasing the phonetic expressiveness of speech. The genius of rhyme and the author of unique poetic forms V. V. Mayakovsky wrote: "I resort to alliteration for framing, for even more emphasis on a word that is important to me."

Literature of all periods and countries of the world is rich in alliterations. The deliberate consonance of consonants is present in the poems of the legendary ancient authors, in particular Homer, Hesiod, Horace, Virgil, as well as in the works of many great European poets - D. Alighieri, F. Petrarch, P. de Ronsard, W. Shakespeare.

Alliteration is also widely spread in folk poetry. Many sayings, among which are proverbs, sayings, tongue twisters, often contain alliterations: "The quieter you go, the further you will be", "Meli, Emelya, your week", "Buy a pile of rush", etc.

Alliteration in Russian poetry

Alliteration in Russian poetry, in contrast to Germanic, English, Finnish, Turkic versification, where it is the main technique, is used by the authors to the best of their artistic manner very restrained. Poems based on alliteration first appeared in Russia in the 17th century as a creative experiment of the famous Russian poet and scientist M.V. Lomonosov. The alliterative tradition was continued by the great Russian masters of the word G.V. Derzhavin, A.P. Sumarokov, A.S. Pushkin, N.A.Nekrasov and others.

Alliteration reached its highest apogee in the era of symbolism, the poets of which strove for the phonic imagery of artistic speech. Outstanding representatives cultivating alliteration in Russian literature are K. D. Balmont, Igor Severyanin, Velimir Khlebnikov and others.

The special poetic effect of the poem is achieved when alliteration is combined with repetitions of vowel sounds - assonances. Such consonances were subtly, exquisitely applied by the classic of Russian literature A. S. Pushkin, as, for example, in the poem "Autumn" (1833):
It's a sad time! enchantment of the eyes!
Your farewell beauty is pleasant to me ...

The word alliteration comes from medieval. lat. alliteratio, which in translation means - "consonance".

The article will tell you what alliteration is. First, let's define the concept, and then move on to examples. Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonants, which gives a special sonic expressiveness to the text.

Alliteration means a fairly frequent use of certain consonants throughout the text or in a certain segment of it. Alliteration is not spoken of if the sound repetition is a consequence of the repetition of morphemes.

Alliteration in proverbs and sayings

Many proverbs and sayings are based on alliteration:

Meli, Emelya, your week;
Two inches from the pot;
Easier than a steamed turnip;
Worldly rumor is a sea wave;
Behold at the root.

Reception of alliteration in tongue twisters

Our tongue twisters are also rich in alliteration:

Buy a pile of rush;
Quail swaddled quail;
The reader honors reading;
Three woodcutters are chopping wood;
Two Vari came to Klara;
Popcorn bag;
The tree has pins;
I praise the halva.

Alliteration in Russian literature

What is alliteration in literature should be discussed directly with examples.

Already in "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" this technique is encountered:
"Trumpets are blowing in Novyegrad, there are banners in Putivl ...".
But N. Nekrasov describes the Volga:
"Volga, Volga, high-water spring ...".
Alliteration often serves as onomatopoeia. For example, here are a few lines from Derzhavin's poem:
"The echo rumbles over the mountains ...".

Here the poet seeks to recreate the thundering of the terrible elements.
It is obvious that the poems of the Symbolists cultivate alliteration. However, the sense of proportion is often violated here. Alliterations are sometimes pretentious and intrusive. Balmont's poem "Chyoln languor" is built on alliterative sounds:
"Evening. Seaside. Sighs of the wind ...

... The storm is close, the shore is beating

Black canopy, alien to the charm ... ".
There is the concept of "alliterative verse". It requires sound repetitions in certain places of the poem, for example, in the initial syllables. The Kyrgyz epic "Manas" (translated by L. Penkovsky) is an example of anaphoric alliteration:
"We rowed in heaps of gold,

We were wearing weasels' hats,

We wore a silk sash ... "

The examples given in the article illustrate very clearly what alliteration is. Therefore, it will not be difficult for you to see this technique in the text.

(from lat.ad - to, at, so and littera - letter)

I. Alliteration is a consonance formed by the repetition of the same consonants in initial words verse.
That is, alliteration is the initial rhyme that was used in alliterative versification. Alliterative verse is supplanted by a verse with a final rhyme.

In this sense, alliteration is not found in the exam in the Russian language and literature. But there is no harm from his knowledge.

II. Alliteration is a euphonic technique of repetition of the same consonant sounds, which enhances the expressiveness of artistic speech.

Rhyme accords are not included in alliteration.
Alliteration, like itself poetic work, perceived by hearing, not vision. Chukovsky, referring to the words of Blok, said that the poet began to write "Twelve" from the line: "I will strip, strip with a knife!" Chukovsky, who was engaged in journalism, gave this news to the mountain not in hot pursuit, but after a long time, after the death of the poet. Blok, who had excellent hearing, could not say such an absurdity. In the given line, not two, but one sound "w" in the word "knife". In "uh" the letter "zh" is written, and the sound "sh" is pronounced.

Our proverbs and sayings are rich in alliteration:
Cabbage soup and porridge - our food
Meli, Emelya, your week
I would be glad to heaven, but sins are not allowed
Still waters run deep
The wolf took pity on the mare, left the tail and the mane
Two inches from the pot
Murder will out
Gruzdev called himself get in the body
Simpler than a steamed turnip
Overseas, a heifer is a half, and a ruble is transported

Alliterations are found already in The Lay of Igor's Campaign:

Trumpets are blowing in Novyegrad, there are banners in Putivl ...
From getting into the heel of the trampler of the filthy Polovtsian plyka ...

All the examples given indicate the expressiveness, which is obligatory and alliteration.
Alliteration often serves onomatopoeia. This is its simplest application:

The echo rumbles through the mountains
Like thunder thundering over thunder.

With the sound combination "gr" Derzhavin recreated, in his opinion, the formidable rumble of the unfolding elements. Agreeing with the poet in this case, it must be emphasized that even in onomatopoeic verses one cannot attach any semantic meaning to sounds:

The hiss of frothy glasses
And the punch is a flame blue.

T. Skorenko notes about these lines of Pushkin: “Here we hear the rustle of dresses and the hiss of punch due to the repetition of two consonants“ p ”and“ sh ””. To the rustle of dresses, you can add, for example, the rustle of a fern, the hiss of a python, the noise of trains, the whisper of girlfriends, finally, the rustle of tangled convolutions, past which reality itself has slipped, which cries out: “And what do the ladies do where the punch is pouring, that is, on bachelor party "? After all, just a verse above, Pushkin wrote about "the hour of the bachelor party." No, T. Skorenko must be brought to the bachelor party and ladies, because “punch” and “dress” begin with the letter “p”, and besides, such a “meaningful” idea should be attributed to Pushkin.
Any property of a word attributed to sound is an expression of sheer subjectivity. For example, Derzhavin, considered the sound "r" unsuitable for "expressing the most tender feelings." He wrote ten love poems that have no words with this sound. And all these ten poems are made, deathly. And to everyone who agrees with Derzhavin that words such as Russia, homeland, dear are not suitable for "expressing the most tender feelings"?!
In native speech, there are no and cannot be dissonant sounds. They are all beautiful. And the fact that alliteration on l, m, n, p is more common than others is because they are the most sonorous of the consonants.
Alliteration, acting as a kind of italics, can emphasize the author's idea:

You can't understand Russia with your mind,
A common yardstick cannot be measured;
She has a special become -
You can only believe in Russia.

In Russian speech, the most common consonant is "s". In Tyutchev's text, he occurs four times in the repetitive, main, word "Russia" and once in the words "special" and "become." In other words, this very common sound is absent. But after all, “Russia is a special place to become” is the very idea for which the quatrain was written.
Alliteration is especially expressive when transmitting deep feelings and strong excitement. In these cases, alliteration is not just an adornment that contributes to the euphony of poetic speech, but sets off the most essential in it:

I don't expect anything from life,
And I do not regret the past at all ...
Lermontov

There is a tired tenderness in Russian nature,
The silent pain of a hidden sadness
The hopelessness of grief, the voicelessness, the vastness,
Cold heights, far away.
Balmont

And the perfume sighed, eyelashes dozed,
Anxious silk whispered.
Block

Alliteration like anyone literary device, is a double-edged weapon. Inappropriate and annoying alliteration can spoil the impression of poetry even among the most complacent poetry lover.

Allegory how a literary term is interpreted in dictionaries contradictory and not accurate, which is largely due to the use of this word in different areas reality.
In the ordinary sense, an allegory is a material image of an immaterial concept. For example, the allegories of the prophet Isaiah: sword (war), screaming (peace).

Anaphora is stylistic figure, which is based on the repetition of any speech phenomenon. But unlike other types of repetition, for example, epiphora, anaphora, as its name implies, refers to the repetition of the initial parts of the speech stream (sounds, words, phrases, poems, stanzas, rhythmic and syntactic constructions, intonation).

Textbooks on rhetoric (especially the old ones) distinguish many varieties of anaphora. However, not all types of anaphora are eloquent. Some of them are of a random nature (behind the fence), others - not so much serve eloquence as its antithesis - rhetoric.

Antithesis is a stylistic figure that connects contrasting concepts (light - darkness, love - hate, god - devil).
It lies at the foundation of dialectics. Antithesis, using directly polar opposed phenomena, leads them to unity through the subordination of these opposites to each other.