Assonance

Assonance
Assonance occurs when the vowel sound in a word matches the same sound in a nearby word. An example of assonance can be found in the following phrase “fleet feet sweep by sleeping geeks”. See how the E vowel sound is present in each of these words?

Now that we have a basic understanding of assonance, examine the following poem “She Walks In Beauty” by Lord Byron.

SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY


She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, so eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

As you can see, I have went over this poem and highlighted instances of assonance. In these three stanzas we find instances of 'i', 'a', and 'o' assonance. Notice that I didn't highlight every 'i','a', and 'o' present in the poem. The reason for this is that these letters do not always present the same vowel sound.

An interesting thing about assonance and consonance (we will be going over that later) is that they are commonly used poetic forms in rap music. Observe the lyrical content from these lines of Eminem's hit single “Loose Yourself”.

Snap back to reality, Oh there goes gravity Oh there goes Rabbit, he choked He's so mad, but he won't give up that easy No he won't have it, he knows his whole back city's ropes It don't matter, he's dope He knows that, but he's broke He's so stacked that he knows When he goes back to his mobile home, that's when it's Back to the lab again yo This whole rap city He better go capture this moment and hope it don't pass him

What other instances of assonance can you find in this poem?



Assignment

Download the following word document containing a poem by Edgar Allen Poe, “Annabel Lee”.
Correctly identify every instance of assonance in the poem.
Email me the poem back.

DOWNLOAD Edgar Allen Poe's “Annabel Lee”