Almost all of us have been admonished to avoid alliteration at all costs.  This apocryphal aphorism has generated an agony of angst among aspiring authors.

Phew!  Get out the thesaurus!

Some people detest strings of words starting with the same letter or sound.  Some writers stumble into alliteration on occasion.  Some of us employ it frequently.

Personally, I am among the last, simply because I like the harmony of similar sounds.  For the same reason, I may use rhyming words from time to time.  But my choice depends on the effect created and whether I think it enhances the mood of the passage.

The example above is, of course, extreme and would be silly in fiction and pretentious in non-fiction.  But many writers include alliteration in their work now and then.

Do you find the use of alliteration offensive or pleasing?