Assonance

Examples

English poetry is rich with examples of assonance and/or consonance:

It also occurs in prose:

Hip hop relies on assonance:

It is also heard in other forms of popular music:

Assonance is common in proverbs:

Total assonance is found in a number of Pashto proverbs from Afghanistan:

• La zra na bal zra ta laar shta. "From one heart to another there is a way."
• Kha ghar lwar day pa sar laar lary. "Even if a mountain is very high, there is a path to the top."

This poetic device can be found in the first line of Homer's Iliad: (Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος). Another example is Dies irae (probably by Thomas of Celano):

: Dies iræ, dies illa : Solvet sæclum in favilla, : Teste David cum Sibylla.

In Dante's Divine Comedy there are some stanzas with such repetition.

: così l’animo mio, ch’ancor fuggiva, : si volse a retro a rimirar lo passo : che non lasciò già mai persona viva.

In the following strophe from Hart Crane's "To Brooklyn Bridge" there is the vowel [i] in many stressed syllables.

: How many dawns, chill from his rippling rest : The seagull’s wings shall dip and pivot him, : Shedding white rings of tumult, building high : Over the chained bay waters Liberty—

All rhymes in a strophe can be linked by vowel harmony into one assonance. Such stanzas can be found in Italian or Portuguese poetry, in works by Giambattista Marino and Luís Vaz de Camões:

: Giunto a quel passo il giovinetto Alcide, : che fa capo al camin di nostra vita, : trovò dubbio e sospeso infra due guide : una via, che’ due strade era partita. : Facile e piana la sinistra ei vide, : di delizie e piacer tutta fiorita; : l’altra vestìa l’ispide balze alpine : di duri sassi e di pungenti spine.

This is ottava rima (abababcc), a very popular form in the Renaissance that was first used in epic poems.

: As armas e os barões assinalados, : Que da ocidental praia Lusitana, : Por mares nunca de antes navegados, : Passaram ainda além da Taprobana, : Em perigos e guerras esforçados, : Mais do que prometia a força humana, : E entre gente remota edificaram : Novo Reino, que tanto sublimaram;

There are many examples of vowel harmony in French, Czech, and Polish poetry.

References

References

1. ''Chambers 21st Century Dictionary'' (1996).
2. Merriam-Webster [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consonance consonance].
3. [https://www.britannica.com/art/assonance Assonance at Enciclopaedia Britannica]
4. "Khurana, Ajeet "Assonance and Consonance" Outstanding Writing".
5. p. 16, [[Edward Zellem. Zellem, Edward]]. 2014. ''Mataluna: 151 Pashto Proverbs.'' Cultures Direct.
6. p. 66, [[Edward Zellem. Zellem, Edward]]. 2014. ''Mataluna: 151 Pashto Proverbs.'' Cultures Direct.
7. [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43262 Hart Crane, from "The Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge" at Poetry Foundation.]
8. [https://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Adone/Canto_II Giambattista Marino, Adone, Canto II, stanza 1 (in Italian).]
9. [https://www.britannica.com/art/ottava-rima Ottava rima at Encyclopædia Britannica.]
10. [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/glossary-terms/detail/ottava-rima Ottava rima at Poetry Foundation. ]
11. [https://pt.wikisource.org/wiki/Os_Lus%C3%ADadas/I Luís Vaz de Camões, Os Lusíadas, Canto Primeiro, stanza 1 (in Portuguese). ]
12. Roy Lewis, On Reading French Verse. A Study of Poetic Form, Oxford 1982, pp. 70–99, 149–190.
13. Wiktor J. Darasz, Harmonia wokaliczna w poezji Vladimíra Holana, Almanach Czeski, 2006 (in Polish).
14. Wiktor Jarosław Darasz, Mały przewodnik po wierszu polskim, Kraków 2003, pp. 179–185 (in Polish).