Alliteration.
Definition: Alliteration, the repetition of sounds in nearby words or stressed syllables, is frequent in both poetry and prose.
Definition: Alliteration, the repetition of sounds in nearby words or stressed syllables, is frequent in both poetry and prose.
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Assonance & Consonance
Definition: Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in nearby words or stressed syllables. For example: right/time, sad/fact, seven/elves.
Definition: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in two or more successive words or stressed syllables that contain different vowel sounds. For example: had/hid, wonder/wander, heaven/haven.
Definition: Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in nearby words or stressed syllables. For example: right/time, sad/fact, seven/elves.
Definition: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in two or more successive words or stressed syllables that contain different vowel sounds. For example: had/hid, wonder/wander, heaven/haven.
Lesson 1: For each of the following passages:
1. He clasps the crag with crooked hands,
Close to the sun in lonely lands.
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Eagle"
2. A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match . . .
-Robert Browning, "Meeting at Night"
3. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
-William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73
4. The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,
Thousands me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before.
-William Blake, "Holy Thursday [I]"
Lesson 2: For each of the following passages:
1. And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before.
-Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven"
2. By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.
-A.E. Housman, "With Rue My Heart is Laden"
3. From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night,
The hum of either army stilly* sounds.
That the fixed sentinels almost receive
The secret whispers of each other's watch.
-William Shakespeare, Henry V
*softly
4. Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil.
-Gerard Manley Hopkins, "God's Grandeur" Lesson 3: For each of the following passages:
1. Beat! beat! drums! - blow! bugles! blow!
Make no parley* - stop for no expostulation,
Mind not the timid - mind not the weeper or prayer,
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,
Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties,
Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting
the hearses,
So strong you thump O terrible drums - so loud you bugles blow.
-Walt Whitman, "Beat! Beat! Drums!"
*Conference with an enemy.
2. Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them - Ding-dong, bell.
-William Shakespeare, song from The Tempest Lesson 4: The following poem by Thomas Hardy, written on December 31, 1900, uses several sound patterns. In a brief paragraph, focus on those that are most significant and explain how they affect its tone and contribute to its meaning.
The Darkling* Thrush
I leant upon a coppice gate**
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems*** scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,****
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ***** and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
*Appearing at dusk.
**Leading to a small wood.
***Stems of a climbing vine.
****Leaning out of its coffin.
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- Name the predominant sound pattern: Alliteration, Assonance, or Consonance.
- Underline the letters or words that display that sound pattern.
- Describe the effects of the sound pattern on the meaning and the tone of the passage.
1. He clasps the crag with crooked hands,
Close to the sun in lonely lands.
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Eagle"
2. A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match . . .
-Robert Browning, "Meeting at Night"
3. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
-William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73
4. The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,
Thousands me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before.
-William Blake, "Holy Thursday [I]"
Lesson 2: For each of the following passages:
- Name the predominant sound pattern: Alliteration, Assonance, or Consonance.
- Underline the letters or words that display that sound pattern.
- Describe the effects of the sound pattern on the meaning and the tone of the passage.
1. And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before.
-Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven"
2. By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.
-A.E. Housman, "With Rue My Heart is Laden"
3. From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night,
The hum of either army stilly* sounds.
That the fixed sentinels almost receive
The secret whispers of each other's watch.
-William Shakespeare, Henry V
*softly
4. Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil.
-Gerard Manley Hopkins, "God's Grandeur" Lesson 3: For each of the following passages:
- Name the predominant sound pattern: Alliteration, Assonance, or Consonance.
- Underline the letters or words that display that sound pattern.
- Describe the effects of the sound pattern on the meaning and the tone of the passage.
1. Beat! beat! drums! - blow! bugles! blow!
Make no parley* - stop for no expostulation,
Mind not the timid - mind not the weeper or prayer,
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,
Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties,
Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting
the hearses,
So strong you thump O terrible drums - so loud you bugles blow.
-Walt Whitman, "Beat! Beat! Drums!"
*Conference with an enemy.
2. Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them - Ding-dong, bell.
-William Shakespeare, song from The Tempest Lesson 4: The following poem by Thomas Hardy, written on December 31, 1900, uses several sound patterns. In a brief paragraph, focus on those that are most significant and explain how they affect its tone and contribute to its meaning.
The Darkling* Thrush
I leant upon a coppice gate**
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems*** scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,****
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ***** and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
*Appearing at dusk.
**Leading to a small wood.
***Stems of a climbing vine.
****Leaning out of its coffin.
*****Seed. Create a free website Powered by Start