Alliteration and Assonance. Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of syllables, as in Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end in different consonant sounds, as in down and out or asleep under a tree. Alliteration and assonance help tie together words in a line or in a series of lines. Look for examples of both in this poem.
Rhythm. Rhythm is the pattern of beats in a line of poetry or prose. The meter of a poem is its overall rhythm. Rhythm and meter are determined by the pattern of stresses. Stress is the amount of emphasis given to a syllable. Scanning, or finding the meter of a poem, is done by marking each strong syllable with a straight mark (/) and each weak syllable with a dipped mark. Read “I to My Perils” aloud several times, focusing on rhythm. Look for a pattern of weak and strong stresses. See the scanned stanza in the graphic organizer below. Write down the second stanza of the poem and mark the strong and weak syllables. Is the rhythm pattern the same as the first stanza? Write the remaining stanzas and scan them. Do all the stanzas have the same meter?
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• Like many poets, A. E. Housman was interested in appealing to the emotions of the reader, rather than the intellect of the reader, with his poetry. Many of Housman’s poems, including “I to My Perils,” are pessimistic—assuming that evil outweighs good and emphasizing negative conditions and outcomes.
Describe yourself as a pessimist or an optimist.
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