“[Much like consonance], assonance is generally a patterning of vowel sounds without regard to consonants. The patterning may be successive” (A Handbook to Literature). “Repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of words with different endings—for example, ‘The death of the poet was kept from his poems’ in W. H. Auden’s ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats'” (Norton).
Origin
early 18th cent.: from French, from Latin assonare ‘respond to,’ from ad- ‘to’ + sonare (from sonus ‘sound’). (New Oxford American)
Assonance Writing Exercise
Choose a section of summary narration from a current writing project that is close to being completed. Summary narrations are excellent moments for using lyrical language to not only add atmosphere but also to drawn your reader more closely. Using the above example, employ the same repetitive vowel phonetics in a line or two of your summary narration. Study the rest of the section for moments when the same assonance might be used in order to create additional fluidity. You might also open and close the summary narration with the same vowel repetition. Revisiting a previous linguistic pattern can create an effective cyclical movement within a section. It can also be a way to alert the reader to the patterning.
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Sources
A Handbook to Literature
“Cogito et Histoire de la Folie.” Jacques Derrida.
Eats Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
The Elements of Style.
New Oxford American Dictionary
The Norton Anthology of World Literature
The Norton Introduction to Philosophy
Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English
Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft
Writing the Other