"It doesn't even rhyme!"
I cannot begin to count how many times I have heard this sentiment uttered, whether about poetry or song, in the course of my life. It is most often heard from those who don't read a lot of poetry, although I do occasionally hear it from other writers, which I find startling. And in almost all cases that I hear this, the device the poet has used is assonance.
Assonance is the similarity of sounds between syllables that are close together. This may come from repeated vowel sounds, e.g. black and hat, or from repeated consonant sounds (also called consonance), e.g. black, bleat. Rhyme is also a form of assonance, taking on both repeated vowel sound and repeated last consonant sound, e.g. black, lack. This may occur within a line to tie words together, or at the end of a line to produce a sound that hearkens back to previous lines.
Use of assonance can be heard in such places as:
'That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.' - Ulysses - Alfred Lord Tennyson
'Come slowly, Eden
Lips unused to thee.
Bashful, sip thy jasmines,
As the fainting bee,
Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums,
Counts his nectars—alights,
And is lost in balms!' - Come Slowly, Eden - Emily Dickenson
At times, consonance can be used repetitively. When this occurs, it is called alliteration.
'I am the very model of a modern major-general' - The Pirates of Penzance - Gilbert and Sullivan
Within my own writing, I use repetitive sounds that do not rhyme to evoke specific feelings, such as within the sibilant alliteration I have used throughout the poem 'Snake':
Slithering serpent silently sighs,
Looks at the world with more than just eyes.
Myriad colours blaze scales on the skin,
Belying the coolness that lies just within...
I cannot begin to count how many times I have heard this sentiment uttered, whether about poetry or song, in the course of my life. It is most often heard from those who don't read a lot of poetry, although I do occasionally hear it from other writers, which I find startling. And in almost all cases that I hear this, the device the poet has used is assonance.
Assonance is the similarity of sounds between syllables that are close together. This may come from repeated vowel sounds, e.g. black and hat, or from repeated consonant sounds (also called consonance), e.g. black, bleat. Rhyme is also a form of assonance, taking on both repeated vowel sound and repeated last consonant sound, e.g. black, lack. This may occur within a line to tie words together, or at the end of a line to produce a sound that hearkens back to previous lines.
Use of assonance can be heard in such places as:
'That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.' - Ulysses - Alfred Lord Tennyson
'Come slowly, Eden
Lips unused to thee.
Bashful, sip thy jasmines,
As the fainting bee,
Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums,
Counts his nectars—alights,
And is lost in balms!' - Come Slowly, Eden - Emily Dickenson
At times, consonance can be used repetitively. When this occurs, it is called alliteration.
'I am the very model of a modern major-general' - The Pirates of Penzance - Gilbert and Sullivan
Within my own writing, I use repetitive sounds that do not rhyme to evoke specific feelings, such as within the sibilant alliteration I have used throughout the poem 'Snake':
Slithering serpent silently sighs,
Looks at the world with more than just eyes.
Myriad colours blaze scales on the skin,
Belying the coolness that lies just within...