How to Apply Assonance and Vowel Rhyme in Poetry
Assonance is repetition of the same vowel sound in neighboring words in a line, or in several lines of poems or prose. Assonance or vowel rhyme intensifies the mood or the music of a passage. Apply assonance to terminal sounds or vowel rhyme and half-vowel rhyme. As with all forms of poetry and rhyme, study and practice are the keys to successfully applying rhyme forms. You need to train your ear to hear the music of poetry.
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Instructions
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Write terminal sounds, accented vowels and a random mix of consonants. For example, "it is" is a simple vowel rhyme with different consonants. Lines that end with the same vowel sounds--"time, ripe, vile"--have only the "i" sound in common.
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Read Karl Shapiro's (1913---2000) "The Dome of Sunday." for examples of terminal assonance sounds. "A silent clatter in the high-speed eye Spinning out photo-circulars of sight." Terminal sounds are "eye" and "sight." Shapiro also utilizes internal assonance. Read the poem aloud. Listen to the effect and musicality that Shapiro's use of assonance and vowel rhyme give to the poem's content.
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Apply half-vowel rhyme. Half-vowel rhymes are differentiated enough to be effective in rhyme patterns. Examples are "capping/lambent" and "believe/conceive." Consonants are random, vowel sounds rhyme, and assonant syllables are accented.
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Read Shakespeare's Sonnet 104: "Steal from his figure and no pace perceived; So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand, Hath motion and mine eye may be deceived." Notable are "perceived" and "deceived." Second-syllable vowel sounds are accented and consonants are dissimilar.
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Listen to Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott." "On either side the river lie Long fields of barley and of rye, That clothe the wold and meet the sky; And thro' the field the road runs by." Tennnyson uses assonance in a complex form: "clothe/thro,'" "meet/field" and "rye/sky." Consonants in each rhyming pair are random, and assonance is peppered throughout the lines.
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Resources
- Photo Credit http://www.nassaulibrary.org/SyoTeensBlog/Poetry.jpg, http://schools.mukilteo.wednet.edu/ma/library/images/poetry%20magnetic%20pieces.jpg, http://www.lib.umd.edu/litmss/images/shapiro.jpg, http://www.lib.umd.edu/litmss/images/shapiro.jpg, http://www.cmrs.
