Ministry of higher and secondary specialized education of the republic of uzbekistan national university of uzbekistan named after mirzo ulugbek english philology department

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Assonance as a stylistic device

Assonance: In this type, the sound of the vowel or diphthong (combination of vowels like 'oi' in coin or 'ai' in praise) is repeated.

Eg: She sees sheep sleeping. In this example, the sound 'ee' is repeated. Hence, it is termed as assonance.

The term, Assonance can be defined as occurrence of words next to each other which have the same initial sound. It means that first syllables in a particular series of words need to have the same sound. It is necessary to make a note that assonance is not always represented by same letters, but also with the help of letters which sound the same. For example, the sounds made by 'f' and 'ph' are the same. Series of words with such sounds can also be considered as alliterative. Assonance is commonly used in poems; in fact, development of this literary devices took place from poems.

Consonance: In consonance, the sound of the consonants or a combination of consonants, is repeated for better effect.

Eg: She shouted and shooed the sheep to the shelter. Here, the sound of the consonants 'sh' is repeated. This makes it consonance.

 

Examples of Assonance Poems from Literature:

Examples of Assonance Poems from Literature:

There are numerous examples of assonance poems. For example: 

Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary; rare and radiant maiden;

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain;

We have found interesting to classify the usage of phonetic stylistic device assonance in love poetry. We have collected some examples and tried to study their stylistic function in the context and achieved the following results: Monsignore,
Right Reverend Bishop Valentinus,
A Blue Valentine - a poem by Joyce Kilmer
It is like the light coming through blue stained glass,
Yet not quite like it,
For the blueness is not transparent,
Only translucent.