“Ha helephant heasily heats hat his hease
Hunder humbrageous humbrella trees!”

In the number of “Society” for April 23, 1881, there appeared several excellent specimens of alliterative verse, in compliance with a competition instituted by that paper for certain prizes—the selected verses all begin with the letter b:

“Bloom, beauteous blossoms, budding bowers beneath!
Behold, Boreas’ bitter blast by brief
Bright beams becalmed; balmy breezes breathe,
Banishing blight, bring bliss beyond belief.
Build, bonny birds! By bending birchen bough,
By bush, by beech, by buttressed branches bare,
By bluebell-brightened bramble-brake; bestow
Bespeckled broods; but bold bad boys beware!
Babble, blithe brooklet! Barren borders breach,
Bathe broomy banks, bright buttercups bedew,
Briskly by bridge, by beetling bluff, by beach,
Beckoned by bravely bounding billows blue!”
—Sir Patrick Fells.
“Brimming brooklets bubble,
Buoyant breezes blow,
Baby-billows breaking
Bashfully below.
Blossom-burdened branches,
Briared banks betide,
Bright bewitching bluebells
Blooming bend beside.
But beyond be breakers,
Bare blasts brooding black,
Bitterly bemoaning
Broken barks borne back.”
—A. M. Morgan.
“Beverage by bibbers blest,
Balmy beer—bewitching bane,
British brewings, boasted best,
Blunting Bacchus’ brandied brain.
Bonny bumpers brimmed by beads,
Barley-born, bring blind relief,
Bubbling Bass-brewed Burton breed
Bland beguilement, bright but brief.
Bar-bought beer—bah! bitter brine—
Barrel-broaching braves, beware!
Bid Bavaria, benign,
Better brews bold Britons bear.”
—W. H. Evans.

Mr. Swinburne, of whose style there has been given an imitation, is not the only poet who is prone to alliteration—in fact, all poets are given more or less to it, though not to the same extent. When used excessively it is as disagreeable as any other excess, yet its occasional use unquestionably adds to grace and style.

Pope says on this point in the following lines, which are also alliterative—

“’Tis not enough no harshness gives offence,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar.”

We find this example in Tennyson:

“The splendour falls on castle walls,
And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying;
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.”