Assonance


Assonance is a resemblance in the sounds of words/syllables either between their vowels or between their consonants. However, assonance between consonants is generally called consonance in American usage. The two types are often combined, as between the words six and switch, in which the vowels are identical, and the consonants are similar but not completely identical. If there is repetition of the same vowel or some similar vowels in literary work, especially in stressed syllables, this may be termed "vowel harmony" in poetry.
A special case of assonance is rhyme, in which the endings of words are identical—as in fog and dog or history and mystery. Vocalic assonance is an important element in verse. Assonance occurs more often in verse than in prose; it is used in English-language poetry and is particularly important in Old French, Spanish, and the Celtic languages.

Examples

English poetry is rich with examples of assonance:
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:
This poetic device can be found in the first line of Homer's Iliad: . Another example is Dies irae :
In Dante's Divine Comedy there are some stanzas with such repetition.
In the following strophe from Hart Crane's "To Brooklyn Bridge" there is the vowel in many stressed syllables.
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:
This is ottava rima, a very popular form in Renaissance, used in the first place in long epic poems.
There are many examples of vowel harmony in French, Czech, and Polish poetry.