Assonance

Definition of assonance
Assonance occurs when two or more words close together repeat the same vowel tone but start with different consonant tones.

For example in the following sentence:

"Men sell the wedding bells."

The same vowel tone of the short vowel "-e-" is repeated in almost all words except the definite article. The words have the same vowels but start with different consonant tones - as opposed to alliteration, which repeats the same consonant tones.Some examples of assonances that occur frequently.

Common examples of assonance
We light a light fire on the mountain.
I feel depressed and rest and relax
G mow the lawn.
Johnny went here and there and everywhere
The engineer held the steering to control the vehicle.
Letter examples of Assonance
complain when I speak because I just got .flee. “
- Deadwood, by Al Swearengin
, this sea tormented by gong. ”
— Byzantium, by W.Yeats
“ Aluminum foil strips that flicker like people ”
— The Bee Meeting by Sylvia Plath
“ I must confess that in my search I felt depressed and restless ”.
— With Love, by Thin Lizzy
Examples of Assonance In Literature
Assonance is used primarily in poetry, in order to add rhythm and music, adding an internal rhyme to a poem. Let's look at some examples of assonance from the literature:

Example # 1: Passing through Woods on a snowy night (by Robert Frost)
Try to recognize the use of assonance in Robert Frost's poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:

He shakes the bells on his harness
To ask if there are any mistakes.
The only other sound is the sweep
Of soft wind and soft flakes. The forests are beautiful, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. "

The underlined bold letters in the excerpt above are vowels that are repeated to create assonance.

Ex ample # 2: Early Moon (by Carl Sandburg)
Assonance sets the mood of a passage in Carl Sandburg's Early Moon:

`` Poetry It is old, ancient, it goes back a long time. It's so old that nobody knows how and why the first poems came about. "

Note how the long vowel" o "in the above excerpt helps to emphasize the idea that something is old and mysterious.

Example 3: Outer Dark (By Cormac McCarthy)
The sound of long vowels slows down the tempo of a passage and creates it an atmosphere that is serious and serious. Take a look at the following example from Cormac McCarthy's Outer Dark:

“And step softly with her bloody ruin over the Chalk bones, the small calcined chest. “

The repetition of the long vowel in the above passage emphasizes the terrifying atmosphere that the author is trying to portray.

Example 4: Don't Go Gently into the Good Night (From Dylan Thomas)
Similarly, we notice the use of long vowels in a passage from Dylan Thomas' famous poem “Don't go gently into the night” Goodnight: 4 0a4
“Don't go gently into this good night,
The old age should burn and rave about at the end of the day;
anger, anger against the dying of light.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding eyes,
blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, anger against the dying of light. “

The poet intentionally uses the assonance in the lines above to slow the pace of the poem and create a somber mood, since the subject of the poem is death.

Example 5: Daffodils (by William Wordsworth)
William Wordsworth uses assonance to create an inner rhyme in his poem Daffodil.

,
A host of golden daffodils;
On the lake, under the trees,
fluttering and dancing in the wind… ”

Example 6: The Famine Festival (by Robert Louis Stevenson)
“ From people who sat on the terrace and withdrew that even long
Sudden crows of laughter, mo song notonic drone;
The quiet passage of souls over his head in the trees;
And from everywhere in the harbor the crumbling thunder of the seas. "
goodbye, my home," said Rua. "Bye, easy seat!
Tomorrow in all your valleys the drum of death will beat. "

This is a good example of assonance, where almost every line contains an example of assonance. All examples have been written in bold. In the first line, the sound / a / has been repeated. In the second line, the / o / sound has been repeated, as in dog. In the third line, the / o / sound has been repeated as in go. In the fourth line / ʌ / has been repeated as in must. In the fifth line, the sound / a / as in air and the sound / e / as in ten have been repeated. / e / sound, as in sheep has been repeated.

Example # 7: When I have a listener (by John Keats)
“When I fear I might not be
before my pen picks up my teeming brain,
In front of stacked books, in character,
Hold like rich collectors the fully ripened grain… ”

This excerpt is from John Keats' sonnet When I Have Fears. The first line shows the repetition of the long / i / sound as in tripe. The second line again contains the same long / i / tone. The fourth line repeats / ai / sound as in bye.

Example 8: The Master (by Edgar Allan Poe)
“And the silky, sad, uncertain rustle of every purple curtain
has filled me with fantastic horrors that have never been felt before; I was still beating my heart and repeating "
". It is a visitor begging the entrance at my chamber door. "
That is it and nothing more."

The master of Edgar Allan Poe is bursting with examples of assonance. The first line repeats the / ur / sound like Vogel. The second line begins with the repetition of the short film / i / sound and ends with the repetition of the short / e / sound. The fourth line repeats the long / i / sound twice. The third line contains a short / i / sound twice. On the last line, the short / i / sound is repeated four more times.

Function of Assonance
Similar to any other literary device, Assonance plays a very important role in both poetry and prose text by helping to create an inner rhyme is used. This consequently increases the enjoyment of reading a literary piece. It also helps writers develop a certain mood in the text that corresponds to the topic.
Archetype Asyndeton