Literary Devices-Assonance-Figures of Speech-Poetic Devices

 

2. Assonance:

 Assonance is produced when some words beginning with or having the same vowel sounds are placed next to each other or almost in proximity (nearby). 

The purpose of the poet or the writer by using assonance is to produce rhythm and music in the lines written. 

In assonance, the vowel sounds produced by letters matter, but not the letters. There is a slight difference between assonance and consonance. 

It is that the consonance is produced by the repetition of the consonant sounds while assonance is produced by the repetition of the vowel sounds.

Examples:

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” (From the poem "Do Not Go Gentle into the Good Night" by Dylan Thomas

 

See the long ‘o’ sound in the lines below:

 

“Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. So old it is that no man knows how and why the first poem came.”

 

"I lie down by the side of my bride" [The sound if /i/ in the words ‘lie’, ‘side’ and ‘bride’ are the examples of Assonance.

 

In the following line, the long /a:/ sound produces the effect of assonance:

 

"Hear the lark and harden to the barking of the dark fox gone to ground"