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Assonance

Sound
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The repetition of similar vowel sounds within nearby words, creating internal sonic harmony without full rhyme.

Explore this topic in depth (3)

Sound Devices in Poetry — Sound devices are the patterns of speech that make a poem memorable to the ear as well as meaningful on the page. This guide explains how to hear alliteration, assonance, consonance and other effects, and how to describe what they do without reducing sound to a checklist.

How to Read Poetry Aloud — Reading poetry aloud is not about sounding theatrical. It is a way of listening more closely to how sentences, lines, rhythms, sounds and silences work together.

Rhyme — Rhyme is more than a matching sound at the ends of lines. This guide explores how poets use rhyme to organise language, create expectation, make connections between words and alter what we hear when a poem is read or sung.

Detailed Definition
Assonance: The repetition of similar or identical vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of nearby words, particularly within a line or a few lines of poetry. Unlike rhyme, which requires matching sounds from the last accented vowel onward, assonance only requires the repetition of the vowel sound itself, regardless of the surrounding consonants. This creates a subtle internal musicality and unity within the verse without relying on the more obvious pattern of end-rhyme. Assonance is frequently used in free verse and modern poetry to link lines and create a cohesive sonic texture. For example, in Emily Dickinson's poetry, assonance is a key element of her unique sound. In William Wordsworth's "A host, of golden daffodils; / Beside the lake, beneath the trees," the long 'e' sound in "lake" and "trees" creates a harmonious link between the two lines. Similarly, in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," the short 'o' sound in "weak" and "weary" establishes a mournful, echoing mood.
Example
Example in poetry:
Poe’s “Hear the mellow wedding bells” repeats the short e sound to create mellowness; Keats’s “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” binds nearby words with recurring short i and e vowels; In Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night,” repeated long o sounds deepen the poem’s tolling music; “Low snow rolls over the old road” uses long o assonance without repeating initial consonants; Assonance differs from rhyme because the shared vowel may occur inside words or in different final consonants
Additional Notes
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words (e.g., “fleet feet sweep”); it creates internal harmony and is especially effective in slant rhyme or free verse where full rhyme is avoided.
Other Meanings of “Assonance”
Also Known As
Vowel rhyme vocalic echo vowel harmony vowel correspondence vocalic rhyme
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