So, is assonance the same as rhyming, you wonder? Actually, no. While rhymes use the same vowel sound, they also end in the same consonant sound. Assonance, on the other hand, uses the same vowel sounds, but not necessarily the same consonant sounds. Let’s dive deeper to make more sense.
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in non-rhyming words used noticeably close together. More common in poetry, this literary device comes from the Latin phrase assonare which means "to answer with the same sound." It is the sound that counts here rather than the spelling, although it will often be the same letter or pair of letters that are repeated.
The companion technique is consonance, which is repetition of consonant sounds.
The following are common sayings or proverbs in the English language. The writer used assonance to make them more memorable without resorting to rhymes.
"The squeaky wheel gets the grease." This common saying uses the long e sound (phonetic symbol /i/) to focus readers’ attention. Notice the words don’t rhyme because the consonants at the end are different.
"The early bird catches the worm." This often-used proverb repeats the vowel sound /ɜ/ to capture readers’ awareness.
Old English prose or poetry didn’t rely on rhymes; rather authors used rhythm and meter, consonance, and assonance to give weight to their words. Rhymes in poetry and prose showed up after English was influenced by the Romantic languages like French, Italian, and Spanish.
Rhymes were favored for centuries, but have more recently fallen out of favor. Contemporary poets use assonance, consonance, and alliteration to enhance and flavor their work.
The hip-hop group Doomtree’s song "Bangarang" uses a lot of assonance. Here’s a portion of that song that’s heavy with the literary device.
In fact, in this short example, over a third of the words use a short u sound (phonetic symbol /ʌ/). This example also relies on the consonance of m and n sounds.
As usual, Shakespeare provides the best example of assonance in his "Sonnet 1":
An interesting example is Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows:
Poetry is rife with assonance, as you can see in this sample from Robert Frost’s "After Apple-Picking":
Poets use assonance freely, but music in particular is full of assonance because it lends a rhythm and sound to lyrics. It creates both beauty and mood in all kinds of genres, from hip-hop and rap to jazz and post-rock.
Use assonance to create an aggressive mood or a romantic, soft one. However you wield assonance, use it to infuse your work with rhythm and musicality.
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