What is assonance?
Assonance is the close repetition of middle vowel sounds between different consonant sounds. Hint: Assonance is sometimes used to create near rhyme. Ex: He had horses and harness for them all Their goodly steeds were all milk-white O the golden bands all about their necks! Their weapons, they were all alike. What is alliteration?
Alliteration is is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within words. Alliteration is a special type of consonance. Ex: Five miles meandering with mazy motion |
What is consonance?
Consonance is the close repetition of identical sounds (consonants) before and after differing vowel sounds. Ex: leave / love, short / shirt rugged / ragged rock / rascal What is onomatopoeia?
The use of words whose sounds imitates the sounds of the thing being named. Ex:
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Practice: Alliteration
Writing an Alliteration Poem in Five Easy Steps
Step 1: To write an alliteration poem, first pick a consonant. It can be any letter of the alphabet except for the vowels a, e, i, o, or u. For example, let’s say you choose the letter “B.”
Step 2: Think of as many words as you can that start with your letter and write them down. You’re going to need nouns, verbs, and adjectives, like this:
Nouns - Banana, Bee, Bat, Baseball, Boat
Verbs - Buy, Be, Bust, Beat
Adjectives - Black, Bad, Big, Brilliant, Broken
Adverbs - bashfully, brilliantly
You may not use all of the words from your lists, and you may think of other words as you begin writing. That’s okay; this list is really just to help you get started.
Step 3: Form a sentence or two with some of your words, like this:
I bought a black banana,
And a broken baseball bat.
Step 4: See if you can add another sentence or two and a rhyme.
I bought a black banana,
And a broken baseball bat.
A burst balloon, a busted boat,
A beat-up bowler hat
Step 5: Finally, see if you can come up with a reason for all of these things as a way to end your poems. Here’s what I thought of.
I bought a black banana,
And a broken baseball bat.
A burst balloon, a busted boat,
A beat-up bowler hat.
I wasn’t being brainy, bright,
or brilliant, but you see,
My brain was boggled after
Being bitten by a bee.
Here's another example
Zzzzz
I see zebras from Zimbabwe
zipping all around the zoo.
I see Zeus up in the zodiac,
a zillion zithers too.
There are zephyrs blowing zeppelins
that are zooming near and far.
There are zealots counting zeroes
in a zone near Zanzibar.
There are Zulus wearing zoot suits
eating zwieback and zucchini
plus a zombie with a zipper
on his zinnia bikini.
Yes, I always have the zaniest
most zonked-out dreams like these,
because every time I go to sleep
I try to catch some Z’s.
— Kenn Nesbitt
Step 1: To write an alliteration poem, first pick a consonant. It can be any letter of the alphabet except for the vowels a, e, i, o, or u. For example, let’s say you choose the letter “B.”
Step 2: Think of as many words as you can that start with your letter and write them down. You’re going to need nouns, verbs, and adjectives, like this:
Nouns - Banana, Bee, Bat, Baseball, Boat
Verbs - Buy, Be, Bust, Beat
Adjectives - Black, Bad, Big, Brilliant, Broken
Adverbs - bashfully, brilliantly
You may not use all of the words from your lists, and you may think of other words as you begin writing. That’s okay; this list is really just to help you get started.
Step 3: Form a sentence or two with some of your words, like this:
I bought a black banana,
And a broken baseball bat.
Step 4: See if you can add another sentence or two and a rhyme.
I bought a black banana,
And a broken baseball bat.
A burst balloon, a busted boat,
A beat-up bowler hat
Step 5: Finally, see if you can come up with a reason for all of these things as a way to end your poems. Here’s what I thought of.
I bought a black banana,
And a broken baseball bat.
A burst balloon, a busted boat,
A beat-up bowler hat.
I wasn’t being brainy, bright,
or brilliant, but you see,
My brain was boggled after
Being bitten by a bee.
Here's another example
Zzzzz
I see zebras from Zimbabwe
zipping all around the zoo.
I see Zeus up in the zodiac,
a zillion zithers too.
There are zephyrs blowing zeppelins
that are zooming near and far.
There are zealots counting zeroes
in a zone near Zanzibar.
There are Zulus wearing zoot suits
eating zwieback and zucchini
plus a zombie with a zipper
on his zinnia bikini.
Yes, I always have the zaniest
most zonked-out dreams like these,
because every time I go to sleep
I try to catch some Z’s.
— Kenn Nesbitt