Assonance is the repetition of similar vowel sounds in nearby words. In Three sleek boats drifted east, the long ee sound in three, sleek, and east echoes through the sentence. In poetry or prose, the repeated vowel can give a line a sense of rhythm or draw attention to certain words.
Listen for the vowel sound
- A slow boat crossed the open bay. The long o sound runs through slow, boat, and the first syllable of open.
- Black cats scratched at the mat. The short a in black, cats, scratched, and mat gives the line a repeated beat.
Assonance, rhyme, and alliteration
Lake and late share a vowel sound and have different closing consonants. In the full rhyme lake and take, the vowel and the closing consonant match. Alliteration draws attention to repeated consonant sounds at the start of nearby words.
