Alliteration is when a sentence or phrase has words that start with the same sound. It is commonly used in advertising, poetry, headlines, and tongue-twisters. Basically the first consonant repeats itself throughout the sentence.
Alliteration is common for poetry. It was used one thousand years ago in Anglo-Saxon poems. A fine example is a strophe from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
- The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
- The furrow followed free;
- We were the first that ever burst
- Into that silent sea.