Consonance

CRAFT TERM

Oct 26

A resemblance in sound between two words.

Consonance can overlap in some ways with rhyme, alliteration, and assonance, as it is one method of repeating the sounds of words within the body of the poem. Specifically, it is the use of repeated consonants. Consonance creates a synchronicity of sound that can help hold to the rhythm of a poem.

via Poetry Foundation

Example

except from “Stings” by Sylvia Plath:

Bare-handed, I hand the combs.
The man in white smiles, bare-handed,
Our cheesecloth gauntlets neat and sweet,
The throats of our wrists brave lilies.
He and I
Have a thousand clean cells between us,
Eight combs of yellow cups,
And the hive itself a teacup,
White with pink flowers on it,
With excessive love I enamelled it

Prompt

Find a line of poetry you would like to build on (it can be your original line or a borrowed & credited line).

List the consonants and consonant combinations in this line of poetry. Now as you expand this line of poetry repeat these sounds as often as you can to create a first stanza. Now list any new consonant sounds introduced in this stanza. Then repeat the process to create the next stanza, and the next, until you feel the poem is complete.

Resource written by:

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Kelsey Bryan-Zwick

is a Pushcart Prize-winning author and the Assistant Director of The Poetry Lab. A multi-modal creative whose debut book of poems, Here Go the Knives (Moon Tide Press 2022) is part memoir, part magical realism, part illustration and focuses on their decades surviving with debilitating scoliosis. A graduate of UCSC (go Banana Slugs!) Kelsey has helped develop The Poetry Lab’s online and accessible workshop model and continues to tend the literary hub of online community for rogue poet-scholars throughout the world.

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