ALLITERATION AND ASSONANCE

 

Objectives

By the end of the lesson the learner should be able to:

1. Identify alliteration in poetry.
2. Identify assonance in poetry.
3. Explain the use of alliteration in poetry.
4. Explain the use of assonance in poetry.

Alliteration is the repetition of the initial consonant sound in a line of a poem.

In alliteration words flow in quick succession

             “love literature, love life”

In the sentence above the sound /l/ is repeated at the beginning of each word. The four words alliterate.

 

Examples of alliteration

“beautiful bride”

“long lorry”

 

Alliteration makes use of repetitions of consonant sounds not letters.

Some words may have the same initial consonant letter but different sound.

Consider the following words that begin with “ch”

Character and chameleon alliterate.  The initial consonant sound is /k/.

Character /k/ does not alliterate with chimney /tʃ/ or chandelier/ʃ/.

Character /k/ and kettle /k/ alliterate.

The letter g sounds different in the words gun and giant.

“Gym giant” has alliteration but “gun giant” does not.

In poetry alliteration must fall at the start of a stressed syllable.

 

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in a line of a poem

The vowel sounds may occur at the beginning middle or end of words.

 

“Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!”

“dying fighting” have assonance.

 

The vowel sound /ɑɪ/ is repeated in this line from "If We Must Die" by Claude McKay.

 

Examples of assonance 

“She told us to go to school by boat”

Told go boat

 

“Anyango can bake tasty cakes”

Bake tasty cakes

 

Effect of assonance and alliteration in poetry

• Create musicality/rhythm in poetry.
• Makes the poem memorable interesting and easy to recite /listen to.
• Helps to create mood in poetry.

     

SAMPLE KCSE QUESTIONS ON ALLITERATION AND ASSONANCE 

KCSE ENGLISH 2016 PAPER 1

(i) Identify instances of alliteration in this poem   (2 marks) 

KCSE ENGLISH 2015 PAPER 1

(i) Identify and illustrate two instances of alliteration in the poem.      (2 marks) 

KCSE ENGLISH 2013 PAPER 1

(i) Identify one instance of alliteration in this poem. (1 mark)

(ii) Give two instance of assonance in this poem. (2 mark)

KCSE ENGLISH 2012 PAPER 1

(i) Apart from rhyme, how else has the poet achieved rhythm? (4 marks)

  Next we analyse oral skills notes on rhythm in poetry.