Alliteration
the repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginnings of words. “Gnus never know pneumonia” is an example of alliteration since, despite the spellings, all four words begin with the “n” sound.
Fame is a fickle food
Emily Dickinson
Fame is a fickle food
Upon a shifting plate
Whose table once a
Guest but not
The second time is set.
Whose crumbs the crows inspect
And with ironic caw
Flap past it to the
Farmer’s Corn—
Men eat of it and die.
Emily Dickenson uses alliteration in her poem “Fame is a fickle food” to emphasize the meaning of the poem, fame ultimately destroys whoever “eats” it. This literary device is used in the first line of each stanza in the poem, and it is used to accentuate Dickenson’s point. Using the terms “Fame” and “Fickle” deeply accentuate the fact that, while these two words are not commonly connected, neither is fame and manhood. Fame is thrust upon man, generating a choice within him: succumb to force, or overpower. Dickenson shows her views on this issue through using opposite words to show the detachment she feels in regard to fame.
"Al's Alteration" has alliteration in the shop name!
"If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." ~Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Emily or should I say Poetess Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachuetts on December 10, 1830. Emily lived secluded in the house she was born in, except for the short time she attended Amherst Academy and Holyoke Female Seminary, until her death on May 15, 1886 due to Bright's disease.
Emily was an energetic and outgoing woman while attending the Academy and Seminary. It was later, during her mid-twenties, that Emily began to grow reclusive. She attended almost exclusively to household chores and to writing poetry.
Many scholars have tried to understand and theorize why Emily decided to seclude herself in her home and write about the most intimate experiences and feelings of life. I think that the best of these theories is that Emily could not write about the world with out first backing away from the it and contemplating it from a distance.
Emily had a few friends and acquaintances from day to day. One of these aquaintances was Thomas Wentworth Higginson whom she sent a few pieces of her poetry to. He rejected her poems, but he was eventually the first to publish her work after her death. Emily only had a six or seven of her poems published during her lifetime--and those without her consent. The number is argued over because one poem was published more than once.
It was after her death that her poems were discovered. It is estimated that Emily wrote over 1700 poems.
(http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/edbio.htm)
