What is assonance?
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in a sentence.
It is different from consonance (repetition of consonant sounds), alliteration (repetition of sounds at the beginning of words), and rhyme (the repetition of sounds at the end of words)
Using assonance
A little assonance can make a sentence flow, making it more interesting, easier to read, and more creative.
However, like consonance, alliteration, and rhyme, assonance should be used only occasionally in writing. Too much assonance in general writing will look silly.
Examples
| Might we lie a while? | She believes me. |
| I mistook her looks for love | Wedding bells |
Assonance in literature
| the crumbling thunder of seas – from The Feast of Famine by Robert Louis Stevenson | And murmuring of innumerable bees – from The Princess by Alfred Lord Tennyson |
| the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain – from The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe | The setting sun was licking the hard bright machine like some great invisible beast on its knees – from Death, Sleep and the Traveler by John Hawkes |
Assonance in rap music
Rap music frequently uses assonance as well as rhyme.
| I bomb atomically – Socrates philosophies and hypotheses can’t define how I be droppin’ these mockeries – from Triumph by Wu-Tang Clan (verse by Inspectah Deck) | His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, There’s vomit on his sweater already, mom’s spaghetti, He’s nervous, but on the surface he’s calm and ready To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgetting What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud, He opens his mouth, but the words won’t come out He’s choking, how? Everybody’s joking now The clock’s run out, times up, over, blow – from Lose Yourself by Eminem |