3.2.2 Assonance
Assonance is the chiming of vowel sounds. The consonants play little part in the sound pattern. Assonance is the repetition of identical vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds, for example, "feel" and "weed". (Do not confuse assonance with rhyme in which the same vowel sounds are followed by the same consonant sounds, for example, "feel" and "wheel". This latter example is an example of rhyme). Like alliteration, it primarily reinforces meaning.
Its other functions are:
- To achieve a musical effect
- To bind an experience together
- To create atmosphere, mood and tone
See an example of the use of assonance below:
There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night-dews on still waters between walls
Of shadow granite, in a gleaming pass;
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tir'd eyelids upon tir'd eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.
Here are cool mosses deep,
And thro' the moss the ivies creep,
And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,
And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep ...
Notice how Tennyson has achieved an effect of lethargy and tiredness with his use of assonance (See the vowel sounds printed in italics.) It is a drugged atmosphere here. The reader feels him/herself succumbing to the atmosphere while the poet speaking in the voice of the person who is under the spell of the poppy's drug (opium) knows only extreme ease and lack of resistance to its effects, a sense of bliss. These effects, however, are also dependent on the poet's use of alliteration. See how many times an initial "s" occurs over several lines, and also an initial "g" as well as "long-leaved" and "ledge". Note also, "lies", "tir'd eyelids", "tir'd eyes", "skies" and "ivies"- further example of assonance. As a rule of thumb, one could say that long vowels usually generate a sense of peace or even solemnity, while the short vowels give the effect of speed, upset or nonsense (Boulton, 1974).