ALLITERATION & ASSONANCE

WHAT IS ALLITERATION?
The repetition of beginning sounds.
A stylistic device in which a number of words,
having the same first consonant sound, occur
close together in a series.
EXAMPLES
From Samuel Taylor Coleridge's
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
"The Fair breeze blew,
the white foam flew,
the furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
From James Joyce's "The Dead

"His soul swooned slowly as he heard
the snow falling faintly through the
universe and faintly falling, like the
descent of their last end, upon all
living and the dead."
Come see the softer side of sears.

Good men are gruff and grumpy, cranky,
crabbed and cross.

Bob began bathing

Sal sewed socks

Sally sells seashells

Water wondered where Winnie was

Blue baby bonnets

Coca-Cola
WHAT IS ASSONANCE?
The repetition of vowel sounds in words that
are close together
Takes place when two or more words close to
one another repeat the same vowel sound but
start with different sounds. It is identical in
sound between internal vowels in neighboring
words.
EXAMPLES

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the
angels named Lenore. (Poe)

Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee.
(Coleridge)

From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with
those who favor fire. (Frost)

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. (
Wordsworth)

A heart no bigger than orange seed as ceased
to beat.



It beats... as it sweeps... as it cleans!

Uncertain rustling of each purple
curtain. (Poe)

We light fire on the mountain.

I feel depressed and restless.

Johnny went here and there and
everywhere.
ASSONANCE AND ALLITERATION
Both deals with repetition of sounds of two words that
are close together.

The difference between them is that alliteration is the
complementary use of identical consonants at the
beginning of words, where assonance is the use of
complementary identical vowel sounds within a word..