Assonance
Template:Short description Template:For Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar phonemes in words or syllables that occur close together, either in terms of their vowel phonemes (e.g., lean green meat) or their consonant phonemes (e.g., Kip keeps capes ).<ref>Chambers 21st Century Dictionary (1996).</ref> However, in American usage, assonance exclusively refers to this phenomenon when affecting vowels, whereas, when affecting consonants, it is generally called consonance.<ref>Merriam-Webster consonance.</ref> The two types are often combined, as between the words six and switch, which contain the same vowel and similar consonants. If there is repetition of the same vowel or some similar vowels in literary work, especially in stressed syllables, this may be termed "vowel harmony" in poetry<ref>Assonance at Enciclopaedia Britannica</ref> (though linguists have a different definition of "vowel harmony").
A special case of assonance is rhyme, in which the endings of words (generally beginning with the vowel sound of the last stressed syllable) are identical—as in fog and log or history and mystery. Vocalic assonance is an important element in verse.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Assonance occurs more often in verse than in prose; it is used in English-language poetry and is particularly important in Old French, Spanish, and the Celtic languages.
Put another way, assonance is a rhyme, the identity of which depends merely on the vowel sounds. Thus, an assonance is merely a syllabic resemblance. For example, in W. B. Yeats poem, The Wild Swans at Coole (poem), Yeats rhymes the word swan with the word stone, thus assonance.
ExamplesEdit
English poetry is rich with examples of assonance and/or consonance:
It also occurs in prose:
Hip hop relies on assonance:
It is also heard in other forms of popular music: Template:Quotation
Assonance is common in proverbs: Template:Quotation
Total assonance is found in a number of Pashto proverbs from Afghanistan:
- La zra na bal zra ta laar shta. "From one heart to another there is a way."<ref>p. 16, Zellem, Edward. 2014. Mataluna: 151 Pashto Proverbs. Cultures Direct.</ref>
- Kha ghar lwar day pa sar laar lary. "Even if a mountain is very high, there is a path to the top."<ref>p. 66, Zellem, Edward. 2014. Mataluna: 151 Pashto Proverbs. Cultures Direct.</ref>
This poetic device can be found in the first line of Homer's Iliad: Template:Grc-tr ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). Another example is Dies irae (probably by Thomas of Celano):
- Dies iræ, dies illa
- Solvet sæclum in favilla,
- Teste David cum Sibylla.
In Dante's Divine Comedy there are some stanzas with such repetition.
- così l’animo mio, ch’ancor fuggiva,
- si volse a retro a rimirar lo passo
- che non lasciò già mai persona viva.
In the following strophe from Hart Crane's "To Brooklyn Bridge" there is the vowel [i] in many stressed syllables.
- How many dawns, chill from his rippling rest
- The seagull’s wings shall dip and pivot him,
- Shedding white rings of tumult, building high
- Over the chained bay waters Liberty—<ref>Hart Crane, from "The Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge" at Poetry Foundation.</ref>
All rhymes in a strophe can be linked by vowel harmony into one assonance. Such stanzas can be found in Italian or Portuguese poetry, in works by Giambattista Marino and Luís Vaz de Camões:
- Giunto a quel passo il giovinetto Alcide,
- che fa capo al camin di nostra vita,
- trovò dubbio e sospeso infra due guide
- una via, che’ due strade era partita.
- Facile e piana la sinistra ei vide,
- di delizie e piacer tutta fiorita;
- l’altra vestìa l’ispide balze alpine
- di duri sassi e di pungenti spine.<ref>Giambattista Marino, Adone, Canto II, stanza 1 (in Italian).</ref>
This is ottava rima<ref>Ottava rima at Encyclopædia Britannica.</ref> (abababcc),<ref>Ottava rima at Poetry Foundation. </ref> a very popular form in the Renaissance that was first used in epic poems.
- As armas e os barões assinalados,
- Que da ocidental praia Lusitana,
- Por mares nunca de antes navegados,
- Passaram ainda além da Taprobana,
- Em perigos e guerras esforçados,
- Mais do que prometia a força humana,
- E entre gente remota edificaram
- Novo Reino, que tanto sublimaram;<ref>Luís Vaz de Camões, Os Lusíadas, Canto Primeiro, stanza 1 (in Portuguese). </ref>
There are many examples of vowel harmony in French,<ref>Roy Lewis, On Reading French Verse. A Study of Poetic Form, Oxford 1982, pp. 70–99, 149–190.</ref> Czech,<ref>Wiktor J. Darasz, Harmonia wokaliczna w poezji Vladimíra Holana, Almanach Czeski, 2006 (in Polish).</ref> and Polish<ref>Wiktor Jarosław Darasz, Mały przewodnik po wierszu polskim, Kraków 2003, pp. 179–185 (in Polish).</ref> poetry.
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Assonance, American Rhetoric: Rhetorical Figures in Sound
- Assonance, Modern & Contemporary American Poetry, University of Pennsylvania
- Definition of Assonance, Elements of Poetry, VirtuaLit