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Examples of Consonance

Consonance is a pleasing sounding caused by the repetition of consonant sounds within sentences, phrases, or in poems. Typically this repetition occurs at the end of the words, but may also be found within a word or at the beginning.

Pairs of Consonance Examples

  • Blank and think
  • Spelled and scald
  • Sent and went
  • Dawn goes down
  • Laughed and deft
  • Cheer and beer
  • Strong and swing
  • Far and jar
  • Hard and ward
  • Borrow and sorrow
  • Litter and batter
  • Slither and slather
  • Pitter-patter

Examples of Consonance in Sentences

  • Mike likes his new bike.
  • I will crawl away the ball.
  • He stood on the road and cried.
  • Toss the glass, boss.
  • It will creep and beep while you sleep.
  • He struck a streak of bad luck.
  • When Billie looked at the trailer, she smiled and laughed.
  • I dropped the locket in the thick mud.
  • The black sack is in the back.
  • The zoo was amazing, especially the lizards and chimpanzees.
  • The lawn thrived when it began to rain.
  • I wish you would mash potatoes in this dish.
  • Mammals named Sam are clammy.
  • There is no right time to imitate the teacher.
  • He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
  • Norm, the worm, took the garden by a storm this morn.

Examples of Consonance in Poems

I’ll swing by my ankles.
She’ll cling to your knees.
As you hang by your nose,
From a high-up trapeze.
But just one thing, please,
As we float through the breeze,
Don’t sneeze. – The Acrobats by Shel Silverstein

[Notice the letter ‘m’]
‘T was later when the summer went
Than when the cricket came,
And yet we knew that gentle clock
Meant nought but going home.
‘T was sooner when the cricket went
Than when the winter came,
Yet that pathetic pendulum
Keeps esoteric time. – ‘T was later when the summer went by Emily Dickinson

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake. – Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer…
If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in! – Invitation by Shel Silverstein

Let the boy try along this bayonet blade
How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood;
Blue with all malice, like a madman’s flash;
And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh. – Arms and the Boy by Wilfred Owen

[Notice the letters ‘r’, ‘d’ and ‘I’]

Great, or good, or kind, or fair, I will ne’er the more despair;
If she love me, this believe,
I will die ere she shall grieve;
If she slight me when I woo,
I can scorn and let her go;
For if she be not for me,
What care I for whom she be?” – Shall I Wasting in Despair by George Wither

These different examples of consonance in words, sentences and poems all show how consonance gives a pleasing sound and creates a special mood in everyday writing as well in literature.

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