Name _________________________________________ Period _____ Date _________
Sounds of Poetry
Alliteration: alliteration is the repetition of beginning consonant sounds in words.
Circle the examples of alliteration in these lines.
Harsh was that hearing for Houston the Raven;
Foes had enfeebled the fortress at Bexar,
Leaving it lacking and looted the while
Hordes were sweeping swift on his land,
Hell-bent to crush him. The cunning old prince,
Did not, though, despair at danger's onrushing.
Hardy with peril, he held it, perused it;
Reading each rune of it. Reaching the facts,
He thumbed through his thanes till he thought of the one
Whose guts and gray matter were grafted most neatly.
"Riders," he rasped, "to race after Bowie!"
Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds anywhere in a word.
Examples: A mime imitated my manner impishly last Monday morning.
The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe
1. I
2. Hear the sledges with the bells—
3. Silver bells!
4. What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
5. How they tinke, tinkle, tinkle,
6. In the icy air of night!
7. While the stars that oversprinkle
8. All the heavens, seem to twinkle,
9. Keeping time, time, time,
10. In a sort of runic rhyme,
11. To the tintinnabulation
12. that so musically wells
13. From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
14. Bells, bells, bells –
15. From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in words, usually in the middle
of the words. To find assonance: 1) mark vowels as short or long; 2) find the repeated
sounds.
16. The bows glided down, and the coast
17. Blackened with birds took a last look
18. At his thrashing hair and whale-blue eye
19. The trodden town rang its cobbles for luck.
Name _________________________________________ Period _____ Date _________
Sounds of Poetry
Write an extended sample of alliteration for each one of the following letters:
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A
D
H
K
M
P
Want more? Try:
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B
F
I
R
S
T