Alliteration

Question 1

B

Answer 1

• Hard / plosive (makes an explosive sound when pronounced)
• Percussive sounds (like beating / sound made by
  banging things together) / harsh physical sound / adds
  to sinister nature / creates a sense of abruptness or
  authority

Question 2

C – hard (like K)

Answer 2

• Hard / guttural / plosive
• Harsher sounds create a feeling of hardness / too many create cacophony and can reinforce the action in the poem/ give a sense of abruptness or authority

Question 3

C – soft (like S & Z)

Answer 3

• Sibilants (hissing) –> sinister
• Sibilants (hissing bring to mind snakes, a common image for evil as with the biblical serpent; the sound of the wind in trees or to create a hushed reverential tone.

Question 4

D

Answer 4

• Hard / plosive

- Give a sense of abruptness or authority elicits visceral reactions

Question 5

F

Answer 5

• Hard/ harsh

- harsh physical sound / adds to sinister nature/ breathlessness?

Question 6

FL (consonance)

[e.g fly, flow, flicker]

Answer 6

• Suggestive of lightness and/or quickness

Question 7

G

Answer 7

• Hard / guttural / plosive

- Harsher sounds create a feeling of hardness

Question 8

GL (consonance)

[e.g Gleam, glisten, glow, glint]

Answer 8

• Refer to brightness

- Holy, sacred, enlightenment??? (context)

Question 9

H

Answer 9

• Soft/ breathy

- Suggests breathlessness / Has soothing effect

Question 10

J

Answer 10

• Gliding (sound created while breathing out)

- Adds a child-like quality/ sing-song effect?

Question 11

L

Answer 11

• Soft

- Used in lullabies / soothing sound / produces an effect of lightness

Question 12

M

Answer 12

• Soft

- used in lullabies / soothing sound

Question 13

N

Answer 13

• Hard

- Adds a halting cadence to the grim, negative text.

Question 14

P

Answer 14

• Hard / plosive/ impactful
  (makes an explosive sound when pronounced)
• This recreates the puffs of wind blowing the washing
  about.
• Can also give a sense of abruptness or authority
  depending on context of the poem

Question 15

R

Answer 15

• sense of quick, light movement (liquid consonant)
• Can reflect the movement of the object being described
  with it

Question 16

T

Answer 16

• Harsh/ impactful

- give a sense of abruptness or authority

Question 17

W

Answer 17

• Gliding / wispy and airy

- hushed feeling which is reinforced by the resemblance of the sound to the actual sound of wind