Assonance and consonance in a poem
Poems use assonance and alliteration to enhance the rhythm of the poem. While assonance makes use of vowel sounds, alliteration makes use of consonant sounds. Both assonance and consonance are repeated in words that appear close to each other in a line of a poem.
Read the poem below and identify
assonance and consonance.
Path Choices
Best, Boy,
Believe
That,
There, Two
Placed,
Possible, Paths
Willing,
Wanting, Waiting
Appraising,
Asking, Applying
Lessons,
Learned, Leads
Compass,
Chosen, Course
Fools,
Find, Fate
Sin,
Street, Set
Driven,
Determine, Destiny
Searching,
Seeking, Seeing
Offering,
Openly, Often
In the poem above,
some words are starting with the same consonant sounds. For example
- Best, Boy, Believes – sound /b/ has
been repeated.
- Placed, Possible, Paths – sound /p/ is repeated
This
repetition of initial consonant sounds is alliteration. Illustrate other instances of alliteration in
the poem.
In the poem, we also
find that some vowel sounds are repeated in
words that are
close to each other.
Examples we have seen are:
- Seeking, seeing – the sound /i:/ has been repeated.
- Openly, Often – the sound /e/ has been repeated.
The repetition of the vowel sounds in words that are close to each other is called assonance.
Further Practice
Read the poem below and identify all the
instances of assonance and consonance
My Puppy Punched Me in the Eye
My puppy
punched me in the eye
My rabbit
whacked my ear
My ferret
gave a frightful cry
And roundhouse kicked my rear
My lizard
flipped me upside down
My kitten
kicked my head
My hamster
slammed me to the ground
And left me
nearly dead
So my
advice? Avoid regrets;
No matter
what you do
Don’t ever
let your family pets
Take
lessons in Kung Fu
Consonance
Consonance is very
similar to alliteration as both refer to the use of similar consonant sounds in
words that are close to each other. However, similar sounds in consonance
do not appear at the beginning of the words. Instead, similar sounds in
consonance appear at the middle of the words or at the end.
Examples of consonance.
From the poem above ‘My
Puppy Punched Me in the Eye’ consonance has been used in the following words:
- rabbit whacked – the sound /t/ has been repeated.
- hamster slammed – there is a repetition of the sound /m/
Note: While looking out for assonance,
consonance and alliteration, we focus on the sound made by letters and not the
letters themselves.
The function of assonance consonance and alliteration
- Provide musical rhythm.
- Make poem interesting.
- Make the poem easier to memorize.
Exercise
Read the poem below and then identify, with
illustrations, instances of alliteration, assonance and consonance.
Black Breweries Braveness
By John Chizuba
Black
breweries braveness
In ink incorporative
individualism
Those tinny
tracers ticking Time
Be-little
black braveness baselessly
Mirror my
motion moves momentously
Directed
diagonal deeply
Hurt humans heart heavy
Because
better black believes
Dedication,
determined destinies
Of our oddity,
obviously occupied
We welcome
world words with warrant
Blacks
built braveness buxom butterflies
Enlightenment
enchanting ego enlarged
Decade
braveness debut delightfully.