Even if you're years out of school and not actively taking an English class, it's hard not to note how we use literary and sound devices in music, art, advertising and writing. You've got "Snap, ...

Americans are awash in alliteration. We are victims of anxious advertising executives and publicity-hungry politicians. Desperate to sell their messages quickly, they repeatedly load their slogans ...

A series of words beginning with the same consonant, used to emphasise a point or create a mood. Tongue twisters are an obvious example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Try saying that ...

Goodness gracious and good grief ! Leapin’ lizards and jumpin’ Jehosephat! I am an alliteration addict, a slave to the super-sized seductions of sequential syllables starting with the same sound. To ...

Alliteration is all around us - from the cradle to the grave. In the cradle, babies utter such things as ma-ma, pa-pa and goo-goo. When you are in the grave, you are as dead as a doornail. In between, ...