Sounds+of+Poetry

**4.) Consonance** -- the relation between words in which the final consonants in the stressed syllables agree but the vowels that precede them differ, such as "add-read," "mill-ball," and "torn-burn." In view of the vagaries attending the ways in which vowels are pronounced and spelled, most so-called **eye rhymes** (such as "word-lord" or "blood-food-good" are instances of consonance.
 * 1.) Rhyme ** – a similarity of sound.
 * ** End Rhyme ** – the words at the end of the lines rhyme
 * ** Eye Rhyme ** – two words look as though they should sound alike (e.g. __tough__ and __though__)
 * ** Perfect Rhyme ** – the sound of the two words is exactly alike (e.g. __dream__ and __scheme__)
 * ** Near or Slant Rhyme ** – the sound of the two words is close but not exact (e.g. __ball__ and __bell__)
 * ** Masculine Rhyme ** – the accent on the rhyming words is on a final strong syllable (e.g. __bells__ and __foretells__)
 * ** Feminine Rhyme ** – the accent on the rhyming words is on a weak syllable (e.g. __season__ and __reason__)
 * ** Internal Rhyme ** – using rhyme in the middle of a line as well as the end
 * 2.) Alliteration ** – the repetition of the same sounding letters, and the letters are consonants. Or, the repetition of initial identical consonant sounds or any vowel sounds in successive or closely associated syllables, especially stressed syllables. . . . Alliteration, limited to "onsets," which are mostly consonants, seems to dwell in the ear for a much shorter time than **rhyme**, which involves both vowels and consonants and seems to stay in the memory over a period of thirty or more syllables.
 * **Consonantal Alliteration:** "The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, / The furrow followed free." (Coleridge)
 * **Vowel Alliteration:** "Apt alliteration's artful aid is often an occasional element in prose."
 * **Alliteration of sounds:** "The moan of doves in immemorial elms, / And murmuring of innumerable bees." (Tennyson)
 * 3.) Assonance ** – the repetition of vowel sounds within a phrase. Or, generally, the patterning of vowel sounds without regard to consonants. . . . Assonance sometimes refers to same or similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end with different consonant sounds. Assonance differs from **rhyme** in that rhyme typically involves both vowel and consonant sounds. "Lake" and "fake" demonstrate full rhyme; "lake" and "fate" assonance.


 * 5.) Onomatopoeia ** – using a word that “sounds” like the noise it describes (e.g. __buzz__, __w____hack__, __hiss__, __sizzle__, etc.).

(Adapted from Charters/Charters, __Literature and Its Writers__, Compact Second Edition, Chapters 8-11, and __A Handbook to Literature__, 9th edition.)