Amusing Alliteration

Dashing Dwayne Dipwort dabbled daily on his draft -- dedicated docile didactic dragons don't do dastardly deeds.

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Image Credit: Mattias Adolfsson illustration - digital-rights.net /278515003_3da41aec39

Alliteration is the art of stringing a lot of words together that begin with the same consonant (you know...any word that doesn't begin with a vowel such as "a", "e", "i", "o", or "u") so that they can fit happily into a phrase or a complete sentence. Entertaining examples include titillating tongue twisters such as "Rubber baby buggy bumpers", "Peter Piper picked a peck of pippled peppers", and "She sells seashells down by the seashore".

Witless wordmongers may find this lovely literary device to their liking since it's easy to plop these pleasingly plump pieces of pith or piffle into a plot going nowhere fast. Artful alliteration is a handy tool for creating mundane milquetoast metaphors to sprinkle along the garden path and lull readers to sleep with trite if not tiresome twaddle like "right as rain", "dead as a doornail", and "good as gold".

There are also endless uses for alliteration particularly when it comes to the creation of nutty names like: "Fester Fanggut" (a Terry Pratchett character), well-know icons such as "Fred Flintstone", "King Kong", "Roger Rabbit", and "Spongebob Squarepants", or obscure folks like "Tracy Turnblad" (from movie "Hairspray") or Harry Potter characters like "Filius Flitwick", "Luna Lovegood", "Minerva McGonagall", "Severus Snape" or Hogwarts founders: "Godric Gryffindor", "Helga Hufflepuff", "Rowena Ravenclaw" and "Salazar Slytherin". Of course readers will also recall several odd personalities in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events -- "Quigley Quagmire" and "Dewey Denouement". And, last but not least, an array of amusing anime character names exist including: "Beyond Birthday", "Cecil Croomy", and "Lelouch Lamperouge".

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Image Credit: Troll illustration by ExtraLife@flickr.com

Headless Horseman Haunts on Halloween

The headless horseman heads for the

haunted house of Harry, Harriet, and Haddie

to happily haunt on Halloween.

Truly terrified they tell their tale

of snakes slithering through pumpkin patches

periously peeking between bountiful bales of hay

high above apple trees towering tall -

a silhouetted sight in the spooky sky.

His galloping gait grabs the ground

while the westerly wind whistles

as the hounds' harsh howls

piercingly penetrate the mist masking the magic

of the neverending nebulous night.

Harry, Harriet, and Haddie hold hands

as they hide hushed with heavy hearts

behind the big broad bed's backboard

in the comodious corner contemplating and calculating

an impending escape although an appraisal of the

scary situation seemingly shouted silent seriousness

of the maniacal malicious muted moment.

High on the hill, the Headless Horseman halted his horse ...

(I hope you can help me finish this Halloween poem!)

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Poetry Credit: NanasCorner.com

Image Credit: cartoonfactory.com/headless-horseman001.jpg

Brunhilda Baughurst, a bashful bucket babe from Blumenort, (Manitoba) dared to dream of the day when she could toss her cookies, her clothesline, not to mention her crabby kids and become a voluptuous vixen of the vacuum or venturesome vamp of the veranda. Failing that, she thought she might consider becoming a veritable vagabond of vapid verbs, vainglorious vowels and vague vaniloquence. At the very least, she realized she could settle for kissing a fool, a frog, or even a flying-carpet salesman just for the heck of it!

Image Credit: http://sawdustandcowpies.blogspot.com

If you want to stand out in the slush pile and sell a book, maybe it's time to use a bit of amusing alliteration.

Entertaining examples of tongue-twister titles include:

Aster Aardvark's Alphabet Adventure

Bootsie Barker Bites

Carnivorous Carnival

Four Fur Feet

Princess Prunella and Purple Peanut

Six Creepy Sheep

Some Smug Slug

Tangle of Tongues

The Ersatz Elevator

The Penultimate Peril

The Vile Village

PALPITATING PRINCESS PEEK-A-BOO PURSUING A PALLID, PEEPVISH, PERAMBULATING PARAMOUR!

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,

How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

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Image Credit: docsplatter@flickr.com

HARDY'S WELL:

Wait waterless wanderer. Whoever walks to the well will wade into a wonderous world. A world which will waken the wilting wallpaper of work and worry. Well? Worry will wait while wells and whirls a warm-hearted wackiness into a weary week. Whereafter waves and waterfalls of wonderment will wash all weakness. A way? Well? A world wide web of wholehearted wholesome wisdom and wit waits to wipe away worries. Wells work wonders for wrinkles. Why wait. Why wonder. Why worry. Why wain. Why whittle. Why wither. Walk in. Well, what are we waiting for? It'll double you at Hardy's well.

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Poetry Credit: Lemn Sissay courtesy of whitehnoisemaker@flickr.com.

Image Credit: Disneyland Postcards@flick.com

Quentin Quid Pro Quo queried the quixotic Queen of Everything about why she quibbled over the quality of queasy quenchers and quaffing quidnuncs in her quiescent queendom?

Witty, well-endowed, warm-hearted wench wants worry-free, wicked, winsome weatherman with whiskers to work wonders (who's also willing to wax forth about wind sleeves, weathercocks and weather-vanes while making wild and wonderful whoopee).

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Image Credit: docsplatter@flickr.com

Image Credit: Chud Tsankov Illustration@flickr.com

If one doctor doctors another doctor, does the doctor
who doctors the doctor doctor the doctor the way the
doctor he is doctoring doctors? Or does he doctor
the doctor the way the doctor who doctors doctors?

Image Credit: Bill Mayer@flickr.com

A tree toad loved a she-toad
Who lived up in a tree.
He was a two-toed tree toad
But a three-toed toad was she.
The two-toed tree toad tried to win
The three-toed she-toad's heart,
For the two-toed tree toad loved the ground
That the three-toed tree toad trod.
But the two-toed tree toad tried in vain.
He couldn't please her whim.
From her tree toad bower
With her three-toed power
The she-toad vetoed him.

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Words Source: Tongue-Twister

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Image Credit: www.floatingbanana.com - artbackwash - illustration by Von R. Glitschka

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could,
and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would
if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

If I see shiny stars sparkling on sleek, silver sleighs or suffer suckey-faced Santa singing silly songs like "Rudoloph the Red-Nosed-Reindeer", or "Walking in a winter wonderland", I'm going to wretch!

Here's a rather effective and entertaining use of amusing alliteration on the cover of a book by Joey Green entitled, "Weird Christmas - A Collection of Curious and Crazy Customs and Coincidences Concerning Christmas"!

>/P>

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Image Credit: toothpastefordinner.com