“Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov: “A lanky, six-foot, pale boy with a n a ctive A d a m’s a pple …”.

“The r ai lroad track is miles aw ay, And the d ay is loud with voices speaking, Yet there isn’t a tr ai n goes by all d ay But I hear its whistle shrieking.” NovelsĪuthors use assonance in novels and other literary works to create atmosphere, enhance or emphasize a phrase or connect the reader to the prose by devising a memorable flow. Vincent Millay repeats the long “a” sound to create a train-like cadence: “Thou still unravish’d br i de of qu i etness, Thou foster-child of S i lence and slow T i me,” In “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats, we experience the effect of this literary device in the first two lines: “At t i mes I’m a j u mble of r u mbles, At others I’m l i ght l i ke the moon But never my n u mb pl u nker f u mbles, Misstr u ms me, or t i res a new tune.” In the last stanza, he uses assonance to produce an effect on the reader: In John Updike’s poem, “Player Piano,” he uses many literary devices to create rhythm. You often see assonance in poems due to its melodic nature and ability to evoke a mood. Writers use assonance in all types of works. The melodic quality of assonance pulls the readers through the words and embeds them in their memories. This approach grabs people’s attention, making your work more attractive and intriguing. Assonance can set the mood and tone of your writing and create indelible passages that the reader will linger on and remember. Poets often employ this poetic device to guide the reader naturally through the poem, creating a flowing effect that stresses the intended syllables. The primary function of assonance is to create rhythm. Assonance DefinitionĪssonance (noun):The repetition of similar vowel sounds or diphthongs within words, sentences or phrases close enough to one another to create a discernable rhythm using nonrhyming stressed syllables. Once you understand this literary technique, how it enhances your writing and affects your reader, you will have a powerful tool to create lyrical works of art with the written word. Typically, consonance refers to the repetition of consonants, and assonance refers to repeated vowel sounds.

Right now, let’s focus on creating rhythmic phrases in our writing, shall we? What Is Assonance?Īssonance refers to placing similar vowel or consonant sounds in close enough proximity to create memorable rhythmic phrases. So far, I’m guessing you think I’m a bit cuckoo, and maybe that’s somewhat true, but we can discuss that later.

OK, maybe that’s a tad dramatic, but I was trying to create a rhythm to get you interested and help you understand assonance. While managing tasks at hand, distractions often command my attention, damaging my aspirations by amassing catastrophe and calamity. Try as I might, I cannot always light the fire to inspire my productivity, despite my desire to do so.

Repetition of vowel sounds within words