Poetry writing is an art based on sounds. Writing takes on a lyrical quality that is pleasing to the ear while drawing out imagery and feelings. The most familiar use of sound in poetry is the use end rhymes. Using words that exactly rhyme at the end of a line in a given pattern. However, rhyming is not limited to end rhymes. A poet may make use of near-rhymes or half-rhymes within a line to add to the lyrical quality when read aloud. These include devices called consonance, assonance, and alliteration.

Consonance is the use of the same or similar consonants in the middle or words or at the end of words or at the end of lines instead of a perfect rhyme. For example; sudden-sadden; harmony-melody.
Assonance is the repetition of similar vowel sounds within a given line, regardless of the spelling. An example of this would be: “sudden thunder caused us to shudder”- the use of the short “u” sound is repeated throughout this line.
Alliteration is a device that is often used in tongue twisters. This is where the beginning consonant sounds are repeated. Dr. Suess made use of this in many of his books. “THrough THree cheese trees, THree Free Flees Flew…” The repetition of the “TH” and the” F” sounds are examples of alliteration used in conjuctioning with assonance with the EE” throughout the lines. Together, these three elements of sound are used to create rhymical qualities to poetry. Rather than limiting their work to strict end rhymes, these internal rhyming techniques are powerful methods of creating the flowing sounds we come to expect with poetry.

Here is a poem I have written to show some of these techniques:

Autism- My World
A world of senses
Light. Smell. Sound.
Touch the untouchable-
whirling dreams, spinning
prisms of colors.
Words in chaos, flowing.
Faces changing,
puzzles of meaning.
Still I listen, intently
to noise in motion.
A world of beauty.
Let me show you,
nature in harmony
hidden in pieces-
of Mystery.


Alliteration: Seen in the above poem in the beginning- Senses, Sight, Sound. Notice the “S” sound is also repeated throughout the poem.

Consonance: Rather than using perfect rhyme, I chose to use half-rhyme in this by repeating similar consonant sounds at the end of each line; Spinning, flowing, changing, meaning; Intently, beauty, harmony, mystery.

Assonance: In this poem, there is a repetition of vowel sounds throughout the lines. These are: whirling-spinning (short i); faces-changing (short a); still-listen-intently (short i); hidden-in- (short i).