Assonance

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and consonance[1] serves as one of the building blocks of verse. Assonance does not have to be a rhyme; the identity of which depends merely on sequence of both vowel and consonant sounds.

Assonance occurs more often in verse than in prose. It is used in (mainly modern) English-language poetry, and is particularly important in Old French, Spanish and the Celtic languages.[2]

Examples

English poetry is rich with examples of assonance:

That solitude which suits abstruser musings
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Frost at Midnight"
on a proud round cloud in white high night
— E. E. Cummings, if a cheerfulest Elephantangelchild should sit

It also occurs in prose:

Soft language issued from their spitless lips as they swished in low circles round and round the field, winding hither and thither through the weeds.
— James Joyce, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"
With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony...
— Mary Shelley, "Frankenstein"

English-language hip hop relies on assonance, which is sometimes hard to distinguish from slant rhyme:

Some vodka that'll jumpstart my heart quicker than a shock when I get shocked at the hospital by the doctor when I'm not cooperating...
— Eminem, Without Me
Dead in the middle of little Italy little did we know that we riddled some middleman who didn't do diddly.
— Big Pun, Twinz

It is also heard in other forms of popular music:

I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed and restless
— Thin Lizzy, "With Love"
Dot my I's with eyebrow pencils, close my eyelids, hide my eyes. I'll be idle in my ideals. Think of nothing else but I
— Keaton Henson, "Small Hands"

Assonance is common in proverbs, such as:

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
The early bird catches the worm.

These proverbs can be a form of short poetry, as in the following Oromo proverb, which describes someone with a big reputation among those who do not know them well:

kan mana baala, aʔlaa gaala (A leaf at home, but a camel elsewhere)

Note the complete assonance in this Amharic proverb:

yälämmänä mänämmänä (The one who begs fades away)

References

  1. ↑ Khurana, Ajeet "Assonance and Consonance" Outstanding Writing
  2. ↑ A concise, tongue in cheek summing up of assonance is given by Rita, the eponymous character of Educating Rita, i.e. assonance is getting the rhyme wrong.

See also

Sources

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