Alliteration vs. Allusion: What's the Difference?
Alliteration and Allusion Definitions
Alliteration
The repetition of identical or similar sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables, as in "on scrolls of silver snowy sentences" (Hart Crane). Modern alliteration is predominantly consonantal; certain literary traditions, such as Old English verse, also alliterate using vowel sounds.
Allusion
The act of alluding; indirect reference
Without naming names, the candidate criticized the national leaders by allusion.
Alliteration
The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals.
Allusion
An instance of indirect reference
An allusion to classical mythology in a poem.
Alliteration
The recurrence of the same letter in accented parts of words, as in Anglo-Saxon alliterative meter.
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Allusion
An indirect reference; a hint; a reference to something supposed to be known, but not explicitly mentioned
Alliteration
The repetition of the same letter at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals; as in the following lines: -
Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheavedHis vastness.
Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields.
In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne,I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe were.
Allusion
A figurative or symbolical reference.
Alliteration
Use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verse;
Around the rock the ragged rascal ran
Allusion
A reference to something supposed to be known, but not explicitly mentioned; a covert indication; indirect reference; a hint.
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Allusion
Passing reference or indirect mention
