Assonance, Consonance & Dissonance

 

Assonance: 

is the repetition of identical or similar vowels. This occurs especially in stressed syllables.

Examples:

Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

"Thou still unravished bride of quietness,

Thou foster child of silence and slow time...."

Pooh, said to you

'I love you honey'

(Hehe I made that one up!)

 

Consonance: 

is the repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants, but with a change in the intervening vowel. 

Example:

from W.H.Auden's poem 'O where are you going?'

"Out of this house"-said rider to reader,

"Yours never will"-said farer to fearer,

"They're looking for you"-said hearer to horror,

As he left them there, as he left them there."

(And this..)

"Money minded miser"

 

Dissonance:

is the opposite of assonance. It occurs when sounds are so different they clash* with each other.

Example:

from Ted Hughes' Wind

"The wind flung a magpie away and a black-

Back gull bent like an iron bar slowly"

(this one too!)

"A white flag waves distracted by the wind,

that breaks its peace and harmony!"

*the difficult sequence of sounds in the lines(above) prevent the verse flowing smoothly, reflecting the gull's hard struggle against the wind. (have attempted to create similar effect in my own example!)

 

Now you try?

 

Sources:

Information:

A Handbook of Literary Terms by M.H.Abrams & Geoffrey Galt Harphaim. Cengage Learning (page 19)

A Level Study Guide English Language & Literature by Alan Gardiner, Revision Express (Page 71)

Photo credits: 

WeHeartit It & tinywhitedaisies