Song Alliteration Examples

5 song alliteration examples (Helplessly Hoping, Alphabet Aerobics, and Be a Better Boy, Mr. Tambourine Man, To Romona) are written using alliterative song lyrics.

Thank you to one of my visitors to Nana’s Corner for bringing to my attention two of Bob Dylan’s songs (Mr. Tambourine Man and To Romona) in which Dylan used alliteration. (See comment below…)

Learning Alliteration Through Alliterative Song Lyrics

Studying alliteration examples helps us learn why song writers use alliteration in their lyrics. Think…which songs are easier to remember the lyrics? Answer… usually songs that use alliterative song lyrics. Why?

  • Alliteration helps us remember the words because it often creates a pattern of consonants that our sense of hearing can pick up
  • Alliterative song lyrics help us get a feeling of the tone/feeing/mood the songwriter meant to portray
  • Alliterative song lyrics help us visualize in our mind a picture or a sound

5 Song Alliteration Examples

The following 5 song alliteration examples using alliterative song lyrics are copyrighted and presented here for educational purposes only.

Song Alliteration Examples, #1

Helplessly Hoping
by Stephen Stills, Gold Hill

Helplessly hoping
Her harlequin hovers nearby
Awaiting a word
Gasping at glimpses
Of gentle true spirit
He runs, wishing he could fly
Only to trip at the sound of good-bye

Wordlessly watching
He waits by the window
And wonders
At the empty place inside
Heartlessly helping himself to her bad dreams
He worries
Did he hear a good-bye? Or even hello?

They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for each other

Stand by the stairway
You’ll see something
Certain to tell you confusion has its cost
Love isn’t lying
It’s loose in a lady who lingers
Saying she is lost
And choking on hello

They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for each other

Song Alliteration Examples, #2

“Alphabet Aerobics”
by Blackalicious

Artificial amateurs, aren’t at all amazing
Analytically, I assault, animate things
Broken barriers bounded by the bomb beat
Buildings are broken, basically I’m bombarding
Casually create catastrophes, casualties
Cancelling cats got their canopies collapsing
Detonate a dime of dank daily doin dough
Demonstrations, Don Dada on the down low
Eatin other editors with each and every energetic
Epileptic episode, elevated etiquette
Furious fat fabulous fantastic
Flurries of funk felt feeding the fanatics
Gift got great global goods gone glorious
Gettin godly in his game with the goriest
Hit em high, hella height, historical
Hey holocaust hints hear ’em holler at your homeboy
Imitators idolize, I intimidate
In a instant, I’ll rise in a irate state
Juiced on my jams like jheri curls jockin joints
Justly, it’s just me, writin my journals
Kindly I’m kindling all kinds of ink on
Karate kick type brits in my kingdom
Let me live a long life, lyrically lessons is
Learned lame louses just lose to my livery
My mind makes marvelous moves, masses
Marvel and move, many mock what I’ve mastered
Niggas nap knowin I’m nice naturally
Knack, never lack, make noise nationally
Operation, opposition, off, not optional
Out of sight, out of mind, wide beaming opticals
Perfected poem, powerful punchlines
Pummelling petty powder puffs in my prime
Quite quaint quotes keep quiet it’s Quannum
Quarrelers ain’t got a quarter of what we got uh
Really raw raps, risin up rapidly
Riding the rushing radioactivity
Super scientifical sound search sought
Silencing super fire saps that are soft
Tales ten times talented, too tough
Take that, challengers, get a tune up
Universal, unique untouched
Unadulterated, the raw uncut
Verb vice lord victorious valid
Violate vibes that are vain make em vanished
? well would a wise wordsmith just
Weaving up words weeded up, I’m a workshift
Xerox, my X-ray-diation holes extra large
X-height letters, and xylophone tones
Yellow back, yak mouth, young ones yaws
Yesterday’s lawn yards sell our (yawn?)
Zig zag zombies, zoomin to the zenith
Zero in zen thoughts, overzealous rhyme ZEA-LOTS!….

(good….can you say it faster?)

Song Alliteration Examples, #3

Be A Better Boy
by Mick Terry

BETTER BE A BETTER BOY before you bother
betting that you’ll bring her back home again.
Try to treat her like you treat a tender lady.
Tell her truthfully that you’ll make amends.
She’ll be upset for a while.
But you can win with the smile.

Couldn’t keep her quite contented, could you? ‘Cause you
caused her so much misery that she ached.
Go and get her gifts of goodies, gold and flowers.
Guess you’ve got to give it all that it takes.
You’ve got to give one more try.
See if she’ll come to your side.

Song Alliteration Examples #4

Mr. Tambourine Man
by Bob Dylan

Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you

Though I know that evening’s empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming

Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
My senses have been stripped
My hands can’t feel to grip
My toes too numb to step
Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering
I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade
Into my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it

Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you
Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly across the sun
It’s not aimed at anyone
It’s just escaping on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facing
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time
It’s just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn’t pay it any mind
It’s just a shadow you’re seeing that he’s chasing

Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you

And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow

Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you

Songwriters: Bob Dylan

Mr. Tambourine Man lyrics © Audiam, Inc

Song Alliteration Examples, #5

To Romona
by Bob Dylan

Ramona, come closer
Shut softly your watery eyes
The pangs of your sadness
Will pass as your senses will rise
For the flowers of the city
Though breathlike, get deathlike sometimes
And there’s no use in tryin’
To deal with the dyin’
Though I cannot explain that in lines
Your cracked country lips
I still wish to kiss
As to be under the strength of your skin
Your magnetic movements
Still capture the minutes I’m in
But it grieves my heart, love
To see you tryin’ to be a part of
A world that just don’t exist
It’s all just a dream, babe
A vacuum, a scheme, babe
That sucks you into feelin’ like this
I can see that your head
Has been twisted and fed
With worthless foam from the mouth
I can tell you are torn
Between stayin’ and returnin’
Back to the South
You’ve been…

 For how to use song alliteration examples to teach alliteration to school children, visit songsforteaching.com.