Editing Literary consonance

{{short description|Form of rhyme involving matched consonants}}
{{For|musical consonance|Consonance and dissonance}}
{{More references|date=December 2017}}
'''Consonance''' is a [[rhyme#Types of rhyme|form of rhyme]] involving the repetition of identical or similar [[Consonant|consonants]] in neighboring words whose [[vowel]] sounds are different (e.g., co'''m'''ing ho'''m'''e, ho'''t''' foo'''t''').<ref name="oxford">{{cite book|author=Chris Baldick|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mp0s9GgrafUC&pg=PA68|accessdate=25 September 2013|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-920827-2|page=68}}</ref> Consonance may be regarded as the counterpart to the vowel-sound repetition known as [[assonance]].

[[Alliteration]] is a special case of consonance where the repeated consonant sound is at the stressed syllable,<ref>[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/alliteration Alliteration - The Free Dictionary] <!-- Link could not be archived by Wayback Machine due to Archive.txt--></ref> as in "'''f'''ew '''f'''locked to the '''f'''ight" or "a'''r'''ound the '''r'''ugged '''r'''ock the '''r'''agged '''r'''ascal '''r'''an".  Alliteration is usually distinguished from other types of consonance in poetic analysis and has different uses and effects.

Another special case of consonance is sibilance, the use of several [[sibilant sound]]s such as {{IPAslink|s}} and {{IPAslink|ʃ}}. An example is the verse from [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s "[[The Raven]]": "And the '''s'''ilken '''s'''ad un'''c'''ertain ru'''s'''tling of each purple curtain."  (This example also contains [[assonance]] around the "ur" sound.) Another example of consonance is the word "'''s'''ibilan'''c'''e" itself.

Consonance is an element of [[Half rhyme|half-rhyme]] poetic format, sometimes called "slant rhyme". It is common in [[hip-hop]] music, as for example in the song ''Zealots'' by the [[Fugees]]: "Rap '''rejects''' my tape '''deck''', '''ejects''' pro'''jectile'''/Whether '''Je'''w or '''gentile''' I rank top per'''centile'''." (This is also an example of [[internal rhyme]].)

==See also==
* [[Assonance]]
* [[Figure of speech]]
* [[Rhyming]]
* [[Rhyme scheme]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120425004710/http://www.poetandknowit.com/english-definitions/consonance-examples.aspx Examples of consonance in poetry.]}}

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{{Poetic forms}}
{{Figures of speech}}

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[[Category:Poetic devices]]
[[Category:Rhetorical techniques]]