Saint Joan: Alliteration 1 key example

If it weren't apparent enough that Dunois is not a persuasive extemporaneous poet, his pennant keeps streaming toward the west (meaning that the wind is coming from the east and is an "east wind"). His prayer is ineffective. For one thing, it is poetically bad. Dunois uses repeated "w" words to describe the west wind: it is "wanton," "wilful," and "womanish," and it comes from over the water. This amount of alliteration draws too much attention to itself. Rather than reinforcing a sound so that the listener lingers on the idea expressed through repetition, Dunois's alliteration invites the reader to marvel at the overdone alliteration itself. On top of this, Dunois uses a bad slant rhyme ("wind" and "again"). Slant rhyme, in which two words sound similar but not identical, can be effective if used to draw a parallel between two highly meaningful words. "Again" is a run-of-the-mill adverb, and Dunois's choice to emphasize it by rhyming it with "wind" only demonstrates that he is not very good with words. He is trying so hard to mimic the conventions of poetry and prayer that he makes a mockery of himself.

A closer look at the personification offers a further hint at why Dunois's prayer might be ineffective. Even as he calls on the west wind, he insults it. "Wanton" means vicious or unprovoked, and it used to be commonly used as an insult against "promiscuous" women. The wind is wanton, "wilful," and "womanish," by which he means mercurial in temperament. The fact that Joan later seems to have no problem getting the west wind to blow suggests that Dunois's misogynistic portrayal of the wind is foolish. The wind won't respond to insults, nor will it respond to misogyny. It will, however, respond to a woman who simply speaks to it and does not try to use the conventions of poetry and prayer to get her way.