Example #1

Try to notice the use of assonance in Robert Frosts poem “Fire and Ice”:

“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.
The woods are lovely, dar and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,

Example #2

William Wordsworth employs assonance to create an internal rhyme in his poem “Daffodils”:

“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o‘er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze…”

Example #3

Below are a few brief examples of assonance from different writers:

“If I bleat when I speak it’s because I just got . . . fleeced.” – Deadwood by Al Swearengen

“Those images that yet,
Fresh images beget,
That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea.” – Byzantium by W.B. Yeats

“Strips of tinfoil winking like people” – The Bee Meeting by Sylvia Plath

“I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed and restless.” – With Love by Thin Lizzy

Function of Assonance