Perhaps the most noticeable of these is alliteration. By alliteration is meant the succession of two 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.