Sound: Alliteration & Assonance

Alliteration and assonance refer to the repetition of similar sounds and is therefor a form of rhyme.

Alliteration concern the recurrence of consonant sounds, for instance the [s] and [m] sounds in Keats's poem "To Autumn": "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, / Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun". Assonance refer to the recurrence of vowel sounds, for example the [i:] and [ou] sounds, from the same poem: "Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; / Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep".

Alliteration and assonance focus the reader's attention on the words where it occurs. In modern poetry, therefore, poets usually keep alliteration and assonance for special occasions, so they can point out relationships between words or ideas or bring attention to something.