Consonance
Literary Concept Presentation
By – Kevin Holland and Zanthia Hampton
Definition(s):
The correspondence of consonants, esp. those at the end of a
word, in a passage of prose or verse
1.
The use of the repetition of consonants or consonant patterns
as a rhyming device
2.
Source: dictionary.com
- What do they definitions mean?
- Consonance involves words that have the same consonant-sounds
- These sounds occur at the beginning in the middle of the words
Examples:
STORM and SCRAM
BALD and
WORLD
HOT
and
HATE
Important Distinctions:
1.
Consonance is NOT Alliteration
- What is alliteration?
Alliteration is the commencement of two or more words
of a word group with the same letter, as in apt
alliteration's artful aid
- What does this mean?
- Alliteration typically occurs at the beginning of a word—that’s
why the definition means by “commencement”
- Example of alliteration:
1. from stem to stern
2. apt alliteration's artful aid
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source: dictionary.com
- So: what is the difference between alliteration and consonance?
1. Alliteration occurs at the beginning of a word
2. Alliteration can also involve vowels.
2.
Consonance is NOT rhyme
- What is rhyme?
- Rhyme is
1. identity in sound of some part, esp. the end, of
words or lines of verse.
2. a word agreeing with another in terminal sound:
Find is a rhyme for mind and womankind.
source: dictionary.com
- What does this mean?
1. A rhyme occurs only at the end of a word
2. A rhyme involves both the vowels and the
consonants
So, remember:
1. Consonance occurs only in the middle of the word or at the end
of a word.
2. Consonance involves only the consonants, and not the vowels.
Now let’s take a look at some examples of consonance:
Here’s a familiar example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9_6IODy0mU
Click the above link, and follow along with the text below:
The first stanza of “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe:
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Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door-"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more."
Source: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15638
-
Name some examples of consonance in this stanza.
What is the relationship between the consonance and the mood of the
poem?
Here’s an example with which you may not be so familiar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqnxmlZ6jZE
Again, click on the above link, and follow along with the text below:
From “Birches” by Robert Frost:
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay
As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Source: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15729
-
Name some examples of consonance from this passage.
How do these examples of consonance affect the sound of the poem?
Is the effect of the consonance any different from that of the consonance
in “The Raven”?
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Works Cited
- "consonance." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House,
-
Inc. 03 Feb. 2009. <Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/consonance>.
“alliteration.” Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random
House, Inc. 03 Feb. 2009. <Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alliteration>.
"rhyme." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc.
03 Feb. 2009. <Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rhyme>.
- LifesLaban. “The Raven – Simpsons.” Youtube.com. Youtube, LLC. 03 Feb.
2009. <youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9_6IODy0mU>.
- Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Raven.” Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. 03
Feb. 2009. <poets.org
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15638>.
- chrisabair. “Birches.” Youtube.com. Youtube, LLC. 03 Feb. 2009.
<youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqnxmlZ6jZE>.
- Frost, Robert. “Birches.” Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. 03 Feb.
2009. <poets.org
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15729>.
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