This question is based on BLACK WOMAN. "fruit with firm flesh" illustrates the use of ____

Analyze the question: The line "fruit with firm flesh" comes from Leopold Sédar Senghor's poem Black Woman ("Naked woman, black woman, clothed with your colour which is life... Fruit with firm flesh, dark raptures of black wine..."). We need to name the sound device in the phrase.

Concept: Key sound devices:

• Onomatopoeia: words that imitate sounds (buzz, hiss, bang).
• Consonance: repetition of consonant sounds, usually within or at the ends of words (e.g. "lost and past").
• Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words (e.g. "fleet feet").
• Alliteration: repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of closely placed words (e.g. "Peter Piper picked").

Solution: Look at the phrase: fruit with firm flesh

• Three words begin with the same consonant sound /f/: fruit, firm, flesh.
• The repetition is at the start of the words, which is the definition of alliteration.
• No word imitates a sound, so it is not onomatopoeia.
• The repeated sound is a consonant, so it is not assonance.
• Consonance technically involves repeated consonants too, but it is not limited to word beginnings. When the repetition falls on the initial sounds of neighbouring words, the standard answer is alliteration.

Answer: D. alliteration

Tip: In JAMB Literature, if the repeated consonant sound is at the start of the words, choose alliteration. If the repeated sound is a vowel, think assonance. If the repetition is of consonants in the middle or at the end of words, think consonance.