1891-92. ] CELTIC PROSODY. 209 
places throughout the verse.” Stephen, in his Literature of the Kymry 
(p. 480) properly observes “ that the works of the Cambrian Bards should 
not be judged by the critical principles which now prevail. Those Bards, 
according to an old authority, preferred, beyond all rhetorical ornaments, 
the use of alliteration and that kind more especially which repeats the 
first letters or syllables of words. They made so much of this orna- 
ment in every finished discourse that they thought nothing elegantly 
spoken without it.” Alliteration, therefore, is one of the peculiarities of 
Celtic poetry. The writer of an article on AJ//teration, in the Encyclo- 
peedia Britannica, remarks “that as Milton defines rhyme to be the jingling 
sound of like endings, so alliteration is the jingle of like beginnings.” 
Churchill describes himself as one who often, but without success, had 
prayed 
“For apt alliteration’s artful aid.” 
Coleridge furnishes a good example of alliteration when he says, 
“The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, 
The furrows followed free, 
We were the first that ever burst 
Into that silent sea.” 
The Welsh poet Llywarch ab Llywelyn furnishes many beautiful ex- 
amples of alliteration, ¢,¢.: 
Teyrnllu, teyrnet teyrnllaw teyrnllin 
Teyrnllyw teyrnas ternyse torment. 
The incitement to valour which Ullin gives to Gaul in the fourth Book 
of Fingal, affords a good illustration of the manner in which Ossian 
practised alliteration, e.g.: 
Lamh threun ’s gach cas cridh ’ard nach geill, 
Mar thorunn biodh do lamh, a laoich, 
Do dhearg—shuil mar chaoir a’ d’ cheann, 
Mar charragh cruaidh do chridh a’ d’ thaobh. 
In Duncan Ban Mac Intyre’s Beinn Dorain, alliteration appears to fine 
advantage, 42.: 
Gu stobanach, stacanach, 
Slocanach, laganach, 
Cnoéanach, crapanach, 
Caiteanach, romach, 
Pasganach, badanach 
Bachlagach, boidheach. 
