“Birches” by Robert Frost (1916)
They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—
With
a blog name like mine, I should be the last one to comment on the use of alliteration.
I do admire it when it’s used well. Frost uses it skillfully to create the sounds of the
forest reacting to shifts in temperature in the poem above. (And that poem just
reminded me of what I miss about teaching, the detective work as you work
through a poem.)
Outside
of poetry, alliteration just seems gimmicky to me. This all crossed my mind last
night when I was flipping channels and landed for a few minutes on The Bat,
a 1959 grade B movie if ever there was one. It starred Vincent Price and Agnes
Moorhead, but the names of the secondary actors were sure signals of a lower
level film. Price and Moorhead were both good actors even if they were usually
in the type of movie that today would probably have gone straight to DVD. In The
Bat were also Lenita Lane and Gavin Gordon, who probably went on to shining
careers in shoe sales or secretarial work.
In
reading, give me a good Agatha Christie any day – the queen of cozy mysteries. Ironically,
even though I write in that genre, I just can’t read most of the ones written
today, partly because of the permeating number of cats, book stores, and
recipes in them, and partly because of the number of characters named Linda
Laurence, Bitsy Brown, and so forth. Too precious by half.
Still,
one of my favorite writers in Ruth Rendell, so there you are.
And
I just finished a book by one of my favorites of all time, Lisa Lutz. Everything
I’ve read by her is brilliantly off-beat. Which, I suppose disproves my belief
that anything with an alliterative name belongs in a second-class tier.
And wait - Walt Whitman just popped into my head. Oh, and Sigfried Sasoon.
Anyone
else?
I prefer Ngaio Marsh to Agatha Christie, though just to be peverse I like Agatha's memoirs much better.
ReplyDeleteAlliteration is wonderful skilfully used, and a huge turn-off when it is clumsy.
Alliterative authors: Danial Defoe and Graham Greene leap to mind.
Ngaio Marsh, yes!
DeleteNow I have to look up Ngaio Marsh.
DeleteLucy Lawless, who played Xena, Warrior Princess in the long running series quite a while ago now, but is currently starring in a series called My Life Is Murder. I think she is a detective in that one.
ReplyDeleteI always thought alliteration was when almost all words in a sentence began with the same letter, unlike that poem above where the "c" is used only once or twice per sentence.
I can't read Agatha Christie, her writing style doesn't suit me, but I agree with you that too many "cosy" mysteries have cats, cake shops and books shops lately. After reading a few, they all seem the same.
I have liked Elizabeth George, Ian Rankin, Peter Robinson, Louise Penny and others. But I have come across the type that you have mentioned.
ReplyDeleteLove the Inspector Lynley series by Elizabeth George. In fact, was actually lucky enough to meet her at a writers' conference a few years ago where she was gracious and patient, joining us for lunch and sticking around for the full 3 days.
ReplyDelete