Assonance.Consonance


 * Assonance/Consonance**


 * Assonance:** The repetition of similar or the same vowel sounds in neighboring words, generally involving only the stressed syllables of words, although sometimes this may occur with unstressed syllables as well. Note the difference between assonance and rhyme – in rhyme, consonants in a word are usually the same, however in assonance, only the vowels must sound similar.

Example: In Robert Frost’s “The Tuft of Flowers”, several of the lines end in assonances, rather than rhymes. Examples include “one…sun” (lines 1-2), “keen…scene” (3-4), “own…alone” (5-633-34), and “aid…shade” (35-36). This may have been done simply because Frost was unable to find completely rhyming words for all of the pairs; however, in doing so, a sense of brotherhood is emphasized between the two men in the poem: as with the words used, the two men are different in their internal (mental) structures and ways of thinking, yet they are the same in purpose and appearances. Overall, the effect greatly improves the flow of the poem as a whole.


 * Consonance:** The repetition of similar or the same consonant sounds in neighboring words, in which case the vowel sounds of the word may not rhyme. Note the difference between consonances and alliteration; unlike alliteration, which generally only involves the repetition of the same letter at the beginning a word, consonances can occur within or at the end of a pair of words, without necessarily using the same letters.

Example: An example can be found in Shakespeare’s __Hamlet__, in line 38 of act 3 scene 4, when Hamlet had just killed Polonius: “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell.” Here, consonances can be found in two places: “wretched” and “rash”, and “intruding” and “farewell”, both pairs utilizing the repetition of an “r” sound. By doing so, Shakespeare allows the actor’s face to twist into something of a sneer when spitting out these words. Furthermore, readers also gain an understanding of the contempt that Hamlet felt for Polonius, and the mood in which he uttered these words.

Chi-Chi Chuang