haikaiTALKS: Syllable Alliteration | a saturday gathering under the banyan tree

host: Srinivasa Sambangi

22nd March 2025

haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering under the banyan tree

Your host for haikaiTALKS: Srinivas Sambangi

haikaiTALKS 22nd March 2025

Syllable Alliteration:

This week we will deal with the syllable alliteration, the third of the six alliteration classifications.

My principal source of this write-up is the book Japanese Haiku – Its Essential Nature and History by Kenneth Yasuda

As per Merriam Webster dictionary alliteration means “the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables”

Alliteration occupies a special place in haiku. The language of alliteration is gentle compared to the language of rhyme. Alliteration can be broadly categorised into six classifications: initial, stressed, syllable, oblique, buried and crossed alliteration.

This week we will focus on syllable alliteration.

Syllable alliteration:

Syllable alliteration deals with the close repetition of the same syllables. They can be accented or unaccented.

wintry train station the wisp of steam with your whisper

— Marianne Sahlin

Notice the same syllables wi’s appearing in all three lines. At the same time the “sta” and “stea” are different syllables, they are part of stressed syllables. The beauty of this poem is it has initial, stressed and syllable alliteration

Stones and trees that meet

My eyes glare straight at me

In this glazing heat.

— Kyorai

In the above example, notice how “gla” in glare and “gla” in glazing intensifies the effect of the heat. The impact is further added by the stressed alliteration of “st” in stones and “st’ in straight.

This type of alliteration can be considered as “head rhyme” since the beginning consonant and the vowel immediately following it are the same.

spring rain

the whole sky

a garden sprinkler

— Srinivasa Rao Sambangi

heaven’s river from where to where

— Kala Ramesh

In the example of Kala, observe the repetition of syllables occurring, not at the start of the word in a couple of words. It’s not a head rhyme. Wh’s in the last two words are stressed. Shall we call it a stressed alliteration poem? It really does not matter as long as it improves the rhythm of the poem. Let’s consider classification as a means for us to try at alliteration in various ways.

Please quote some examples of yours or other poets this week. You may try to write a new poem as well. Repetition of words in a haiku also theoretically have same syllables but I do not think that falls in syllable alliteration. You may wish to give a note how it’s a syllable alliteration and mention if your poem has other alliterations as well

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KIGO WORDS

Shall we please try to include a kigo word in all the poems we share here?

Give the season and the word—under your poem.

I'm quoting Lev Hart's request here: "This week’s goal is to compose two verses with toriawase, blending wabi, sabi, karumi, mono no aware, and/or yugen. Tell us which aesthetic concepts you mean to express in a line below the verse. Strive for originality. Avoid stock phrases and shopworn images."

For seasonal references, please check these lists:

“A Dictionary of Haiku Classified by Season Words with Traditional and Modern Methods,” by Jane Reichhold:

https://thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/7fb6654a1dfd1afef97369da920530f8.pdf

indian subcontinent SAIJIKI:

https://www.trivenihaikai.in/indian-saijiki

The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words:

http://www.2hweb.net/haikai/renku/500ESWd.html

The World Kigo Database:

https://wkdkigodatabase03 .blogspot.com/

The Yuki Teikei Haiku Season Word List:

https://yths.org/season-word -list/

Thank you for this post, Srinivas.