The best known alliterative poem in English is the following:—
An Austrian army, awfully arrayed,
Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade.
Cossack commanders, cannonading, come,
Dealing destruction’s devastating doom;
Every endeavor engineers essay
For fame, for fortune, forming furious fray.
Gaunt gunners grapple, giving gashes good;
Heaves high his head heroic hardihood.
Ibraham, Islam, Ismael, imps in ill,
Jostle John, Jarovlitz, Jem, Joe, Jack, Jill;
Kick kindling Kutusoff, kings’ kinsmen kill;
Labor low levels loftiest, longest lines;
Men march ’mid moles, ’mid mounds, ’mid murderous mines.
Now nightfall’s nigh, now needful nature nods,
Opposed, opposing, overcoming odds.
Poor peasants, partly purchased, partly pressed,
Quite quaking, “Quarter! Quarter!” quickly quest.
Reason returns, recalls redundant rage,
Saves sinking soldiers, softens signiors sage.
Truce, Turkey, truce! truce, treacherous Tartar train!
Unwise, unjust, unmerciful Ukraine!
Vanish, vile vengeance! vanish, victory vain!
Wisdom walls war—wails warring words. What were
Xerxes, Xantippê, Ximenês, Xavier?
Yet Yassy’s youth, ye yield your youthful yest
Zealously, zanies, zealously, zeal’s zest.
From H. Southgate, Many Thoughts on Many Things.
Tusser has a poem of twelve lines, in rhyme, every word of which begins with t. The subject is on Thriftiness (died 1580).
P’s (The Five), William Oxberry, printer, poet, publisher, publican and player (1784-1824).
Pache (J. Nicolas), a Swiss by birth. He was minister of war in 1792, and maire de Paris 1793. Pache hated the Girondists, and at the fall of Danton, was imprisoned. After his liberation, he retired to Thym-le-Moutiers (in the Ardennes), and died in obscurity (1740-1823).
Swiss Pache sits sleek-headed, frugal, the wonder of his own ally for humility of mind.... Sit there, Tartuffe, till wanted.—Carlyle.
Pacific (The), Amadeus VIII., count of Savoy (1383, 1391-1439, abdicated, and died 1451).
Frederick III., emperor of Germany (1415, 1440-1493).
Olaus III. of Norway (*, 1030-1093).
Pac´olet, a dwarf, “full of great sense and subtle ingenuity.” He had an enchanted horse, made of wood, with which he carried off Valentine, Orson and Clerimond from the dungeon of Ferrăgus. This horse is often alluded to. “To ride Pacolet’s horse” is a phrase for going very fast.—Valentine and Orson, fifteenth century).