Department of english language and literature

Assonance
Definition: Assonance refers to repetition of sounds produced by vowels within a sentence or phrase. In this regard assonance can be understood to be a kind of alliteration. What sets it apart from alliterations is that it is the repetition of only vowel sounds. Assonance is the opposite of consonance, which implies repetitive usage of consonant sounds.(4)Example: “A long song” . (Where the ‘o’ sound is repeated in the last two words of the sentence).
Assonance, in prosody, repetition of stressed vowel sounds within words with different end consonants, as in the phrase “quite like.” It is unlike rhyme, in which initial consonants differ but both vowel and end-consonant sounds are identical, as in the phrase “quite right.” Many common phrases, such as “mad as a hatter,” “free as a breeze,” or “high as a kite,” owe their appeal to assonance. As a poetic device, internal assonance is usually combined with alliteration (repetition of initial consonant sounds) and consonance (repetition of end or medial consonant sounds) to enrich the texture of the poetic line. Sometimes a single vowel sound is repeated, as in the opening line of Thomas Hood’s “Autumn”: I saw old Autumn in the misty morn.
Sometimes two or more vowel sounds are repeated, as in the opening lines of Shelley’s “The Indian Serenade,” which creates a musical counterpoint with long i and long e sounds:

I arise from dreams of thee

In the first sweet sleep of night

Assonance at the end of a line, producing an impure, or off, rhyme, is found in La Chanson de Roland and most French verses composed before the introduction of pure rhyme into French verse in the 12th century. It remains a feature of Spanish and Portuguese poetry. In English verse, assonance is frequently found in the traditional ballads, where its use may have been careless or unavoidable. The last verse of “Sir Patrick Spens” is an example:

Haf owre, haf owre to Aberdour,

It’s fiftie fadom deip:
And thair lies guid Sir Patrick Spence,
Wi’ the Scots lords at his feit.