The repetition of consonant sounds can produce a dramatic auditory effect for readers and listeners. Assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds, is distinct from consonance, which refers to the repetition of consonant sounds. Along with rhyme and alliteration, it is a powerful poetic device that writers can use to make their words stand out.
Consonance is a common literary technique used by poets to draw in their readers as it compels readers to pause to consider the near rhyme created by consonance. Non-alliterative consonance can also add rhythm and musicality to writing without being as obvious as alliteration. Both terms are associated with repetition—assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds and consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds—but these terms as they are typically used differ in 3 important ways from the patterning of rhyme.
Consonance is the repetition of a consonant sound and is typically used to refer to the repetition of sounds at the end of the word, but also refers to repeated sounds in the middle of a word.
Consonance does not require that words with the same consonant sounds be directly next to each other. Top Pages A-Z glossary punctuation A-Z confused words common mistakes ordered by seriousness Top Tip Get a grammar checker for your browser vocabulary for learners tests and games awkward plurals sayings and proverbs tattoo fails our Twitter page our YouTube channel. Consonance Our Story Search The Quick Answer Consonance is when nearby words repeat the same consonant sounds.
Got it? Take a quick test. Key Points Use non-alliterative consonance to force your readers to think more deeply about your word choice. Use consonance to add rhythm and musicality to your writing either obviously with alliteration or subtly without. Use alliteration or consonance to make your message more memorable. Assonance is similar to consonance in that the sounds can be repeated at the beginning, middle, or end of words in close proximity to each other.
However, assonance refers to the repetition of vowel sounds, not consonants. Consonance is a useful literary device, particularly in poetry. The repetition of consonant sounds can produce a dramatic auditory effect for readers and listeners. This enables writers to call the attention and focus of their audience to the subject of the literary work. This thought is as a death, which cannot choose But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
In this sonnet , Shakespeare incorporates consonance in nearly every line. This is an effective poetic device in that the sounds of the words enhance the emotion and imagery of the overall poem. This repetitive thought process of fearing the loss of his love is an entrapment for the poet that appears to limit any joy or solace that his love might bring to him.
Shall I part my hair behind? Rhymes can be either repeated consonant sounds or vowel sounds or combinations of the two.
A rhyme, then, can be consonant, but not all rhymes are consonant. Here's an example of two different instances of consonance functioning as rhyme:. There once was a teacher named Bi ll Who placed his teapot on the si ll : The students took ai m With their pens, without sha m e, Crying, "Bill! It's your pot you must fi ll! Lines one, two, and five end with an "L" sound, and lines three and four with an "M" sound. Both of these sound-clusters are rhymes as well as examples of consonance.
Consonance is common in all sorts of writing, including poetry and prose literature, as well as song lyrics. In both poetry and prose, consonance can give language a musical element, as well as emphasize sounds or words that resonate with the main ideas or themes of the work.
When consonance is also alliterative, it can add rhythm to the text, too. This famous poem by Walt Whitman is an enormous catalogue of what he sees and hears and feels. The consonant repetition of the " s " sound heightens the sonic and specifically musical quality of the poem, so that the poem mimics the very activity it describes: singing. Note that, because the "s" sounds occur either at the beginnings of words or in their stressed syllables below, this is also an example of alliteration.
Spoken by Hamlet , the Prince of Denmark, these lines use consonance to make the language more incisive. The dark joke Hamlet is making is that his mother has committed incest by marrying his father's brother.
A l itt l e more than k in, and l ess than k ind. The use of consonance below gives the lines a greater sense of cohesion and gravity, demonstrating just how dire are the circumstances being described. The speaker really believes that his heartache is like a physical wound.
Not at the first sight, nor w ith a dribbed shot, L ove gave the w ound, w hich, w hi l e I b reathe, w i ll b l eed In this line from chapter 9 of Moby-Dick , the " s " and " h " sounds mirror the activity of the scene—singing—by making the prose musical. Nearly all joined in s inging thi s h ymn, which s welled h igh about the h owling of the s torm The repetition of the awkward " th " sound in this passage means that the prose moves at a slower pace—just try reading it out loud and you'll see that the difficulty in pronouncing the consonant sounds physically slows you.
This mirrors the slowness and care with which one might walk through the "valley of the shadow of death. Yea, th ough I walk th rough the valley of the shadow of dea th , I will fear no evil: for th ou art wi th me; th y rod and th y staff, th ey comfort me.
In these lines from book 1 of Paradise Lost , Milton's complex use of consonance demonstrates his masterful command of the English language. Of Man's f irs t di s obedien c e, and the f rui t Of tha t F orbidden T ree, whose mor t al t a s t Brough t Death in t o the W orld, and all our w oe, With lo ss of Eden, t ill one grea t er Man Re s t ore u s , and regain the bli ss ful S ea t Since consonance is a sound-based device that can make language sound musical, it should be no surprise that songwriters use it all the time in their music.
The American folk musician Woody Guthrie uses consonance on the " d ," " m ," and " b " sounds to create a bouncing, humorous, re-imagination of major events in world history. I b eat the d aring Ro m an, I b eat the d aring Turk, D efeated Nero's ar m y with thirty m inutes' work, I fought the greatest leaders and I licke d the m everyone, And that was a b out the b iggest thing that m an had ever d one Dylan's song is a bounding, leaping, joyful composition of sounds and ideas, and the consonance of " f " and " p " and " t " and " b " sounds below shows his playfulness as he paints a scene of what might otherwise seem like desperation and displacement.
Maggie comes f leet f oo t F ace f ull-a black soo t T alkin' tha t the hea t p u t P lan t s in the b ed b ut
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