Consonance

Consonance
Consonance is the repetition of the same end consonant sounds at the end of words. Do not confuse this with assonance or alliteration. Assonance as you will remember, deals with vowel sounds. Please examine the following sentence for it's use of consonance.

She gave the big dog a hug.

See how easy that was? A casual glance at that sentence would reveal that the consonant 'g' sound was being continually repeated. When looking for consonance in poetry it is important to not just rely upon your eyes, sometimes word endings that produce the same consonant sound do not always end in the same spelling. Take for example the following quote from Edgar Allen Poe's “The Raven”.

"And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain"

Notice how many of the instances of consonance that I highlighted ended with 'n' except for 'rustling' which ended in a 'ing'? If you were simply looking at the spelling of words as indicators of consonance, then there is the possibility that you may overlook something.

I know I mentioned this previously, but one of the key features of consonance is that it is located at the end of words. If you notice a consonant at the beginning of a word, it is known as alliteration. We will go over alliteration in a later lesson.

Assignment
Your assignment for the day is to examine Emily Dickinson's “He Fumbles At Your Spirit” for instances of consonance. I'll give you a hint, there is just one occurrence of it throughout the poem (meaning that it is located in just one stanza). Once you find this occurrence of consonance, give me a written explanation as to why you believe that this example represents consonance.

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Emily Dickinson's “He Fumbles At Your Spirit”