Consonance is a stylistic literary device identified by the repetition of identical or similar
consonants in neighboring words whose
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...
sounds are different (e.g. coming home, hot foot).
Consonance may be regarded as the counterpart to the vowel-sound repetition known as
assonance.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...
is a special case of consonance where the repeated consonant sound is at the stressed syllable,
Alliteration - The Free Dictionary
as in "few flocked to the fight" or "around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran". Alliteration is usually distinguished from other types of consonance in poetic analysis, and has different uses and effects.
Another special case of consonance is sibilance, the use of several sibilant sound
Sibilants are fricative consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words ''sip'', ''zip'', ''ship'', and ...
s such as and . An example is the verse from Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
's " The Raven": "And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain." (This example also contains assonance around the "ur" sound.) Another example of consonance is the word "sibilance" itself.
Consonance is an element of half-rhyme poetic format, sometimes called "slant rhyme". It is common in hip-hop music, as for example in the song ''Zealots'' by the Fugees: "Rap rejects my tape deck, ejects projectile/Whether Jew or gentile I rank top percentile." (This is also an example of internal rhyme.)
See also
* Assonance
* Figure of speech
* Rhyming
* Rhyme scheme
References
External links
Examples of consonance in poetry.
Poetic devices
Rhetorical techniques
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