Sound Devices Rhyme Scheme n Repetition or pattern

Sound Devices

Rhyme Scheme n Repetition or pattern of rhyming words at the end of lines of poetry Roses are red. -A Violets are blue. -B Sugar is sweet, -C and so are you! -B

Alliteration n The repetition of an initial consonant sound, as in "a peck of pickled peppers. " “You'll never put a better bit of butter on your knife. " (advertising slogan for Country Life butter) "Good men are gruff and grumpy, cranky, crabbed, and cross. " (Clement Freud)

Consonance n n the repetition of consonant sounds; more specifically, the repetition of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words. ’T was later when the summer went Than when the cricket came, And yet we knew that gentle clock Meant nought but going home. (Emily Dickinson, "’T was later when the summer went")

Assonance n n The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in neighboring words. "It beats. . . as it sweeps. . . as it cleans!" (advertising slogan for Hoover vacuum cleaners, 1950 s) "Those images that yet Fresh images beget, That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea. " (W. B. Yeats, "Byzantium")

Onomatopoeia n The use of words (such as hiss or murmur) that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.

Rhyme End Rhyme n Internal Rhyme n Slant Rhyme n

End Rhyme n n Rhyming of the final words of lines in a poem. The following, for example, is from Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” : Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks into gravelly ground

Internal Rhyme n n Rhyming of two words within the same line of poetry. The following, for example, is from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” : Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

Slant Rhyme n n Rhyme in which two words share just a vowel sound (assonance – e. g. “heart” and “star”) or in which they share just a consonant sound (consonance – e. g. “milk” and “walk”). Slant rhyme is a technique perhaps more in tune with the uncertainties of the modern age than strong rhyme. The following example is also from Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” : Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun