Throughout "Queen Herod," alliteration creates vibrant music that makes the poem's story more dramatic and exciting. For example, in line 7, when Queen Herod describes the visiting queens as "courteous, confident," the repetition of sharp /c/ sounds cuts through the poem; the words sound just as powerful and assertive as the women they describe.
Meanwhile, when Queen Herod describes the newly risen eastern star in lines 87-89, she uses repeated /b/ sounds:
blatant, brazen, buoyant in the East—
and blue—
The Boyfriend's Star.
These bold, booming consonants pierce the poem, mimicking the way that star pierces the night sky "like a nail."
In other instances, alliteration highlights the relationship between words. Take, for example, the visiting queens' description of the boy whose birth the eastern star signals: "Him. The Husband. Hero. Hunk." Here, the repetition of many /h/ sounds in quick succession speeds up the poem and adds urgent energy to the visiting queens' urgent prophecy.
A similar effect occurs in line 38, when the queens refer to the boy as "The Rip. The Rake. The Rat." In both instances, alliteration also emphasizes the connection between the alliterated words—"Husband," "Hero," and "Hunk" all refer to the same individual, as do "Rip," "Rake," and "Rat." The visiting queens treat these words as interchangeable , despite their having vastly different meanings and connotations. In this way, alliteration draws attention to the paradoxical qualities of the prophesied boy, who essentially embodies all the various ways in which men oppress women within romantic relationships.