Poetry Support

eWriting > Poetry Support > 3.2.3

• Features
• Components
• Statement & Voice
• Self-Test
• Rhythm
• Rap
• Self-Test
• Metre
• Self-Test
• Rhyme
• Self-Test
• Sound devices
• Alliteration
• Assonance
• Consonance
• Variation
• Self-Test
• Verbal devices
• Imagery
• Metaphor
• Simile
• Personification
• Synecdoche
• Metonymy
• Hyperbole
li>Symbolism
• Diction
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• Self-Test
• Affective Levels
• Tone
• Atmosphere
• Mood
• Self-Test

3.2.3 Consonance

Consonance is the opposite to assonance. The consonants in a line/lines dominate the pattern of the identical sound. Identical consonant sounds both at the beginning and end of a word are often used in place of rhyme, for example, "mack", "muck", "Mick","mock". The use of consonant sounds may also be partial, for example, "pressed" and "past", and "shadow" and "meadow". Consonance may assist alliteration or support a particular alliterative pattern. As a rule of thumb, one could say that b and p which are explosive sounds assist the poet to create quick movement, nonsense and contempt while m, n and ng introduce a humming, musical sound, and sometimes, even a threatening sound. Then there is l. The writer employs l when he/she wishes to suggest the motion of water in whatever form or a feeling of tranquillity or luxury. The writer achieves a sense of harshness, violence, unkindness, discord or disturbance with the use of k, g, st, gs, ch. The sound s, and sh create the hissing sound while x gives a harsh sound. The use of f, w, v give light, easy motion. The writer uses t and d to produce the effect of hardness. The presence of r indicates movement and noise but what it does in context depends on with what consonants it is paired. The combination of th brings a soft and soothing sound to the context. (Boulton, 1953).

So the poet uses consonance:

• To unify, emphasise and support the general idea of the passage
• To generate tone, mood and atmosphere

See the example below:

Now men will go content with what we spoiled,
Or, discontent, boiled bloody, and be spilled.
They will be swift with the swiftness of the tigress,
None will break ranks though nations trek from progress,
Courage was mine, and I had mystery
Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery:
To miss the march of this retreating world:
Into vain citadels that are not walled

(From Wilfred Owen's "Strange Meeting")
(In Seven Centuries of Poetry in English. (1991). J. Leonard (Ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.)

The consonance in this excerpt is assisting the alliterative patterns that Owen has created. The accumulation, for instance, of so many "s's" and "l's" and "m's" across the lines and the harshness of the repetition of "k" in one line alone, help to communicate the terrible and discordant anguish Owen is feeling about the self-destruction of war. The use of "p's" and "b's" emphasise the explosiveness of the situation. The "l's" suggest the streams of blood, the lives lost, and the "m's" contribute to a sinister atmosphere.