Assonans – phonetic reception of the organization of the text in literature and poetry. The essence of an assonans consists in repetition of identical vowels in a certain statement.
Difference between assonansy and alliteration
First of all assonans it is used for creation of special color in the art text, in particular the poetic text. In fact, assonans is a peculiar tool in hands of writers and poets for which each of them finds unique application. In literary criticism assonans it is often mentioned together with alliteration – reception based on repetition of consonants. Often these welcome can be got in one poetic text. For example, in a fragment of the poem of S.Ya. Marshak:
On the sky golubomuproyekhat a thunder roar.
Assonans and alliteration in these lines perfectly adjoin with each other, creating a bright image of summer day in the poem. These two receptions are capable to give special musicality to poetic works or to transfer the nature of sounding of any given phenomenon, to do the text in general to more expressive.
Functions of an assonans in the text
Besides, assonans kind of unites various words among themselves and also allocates them against the background of other text with special melodiousness, a rhythm and harmony. Each vowel has the special duration and the nature of sounding, original use of various properties of sounds distinguishes poetic dictions of different authors. One more function of an assonans is its application for creation of a rhyme of a special type. Such rhyme is often called inexact or assonansny. In this rhyme only vowels are in consonance. For example, "a belt – the train". It is known that in medieval poetry assonans was one of the most widespread receptions for creation of a rhyme in the poetic text. Also in the 19th century (Spaniards and Portuguese) quite often used this method in the poetry. It is considered that its popularity in these countries is connected with phonetic features of their languages.
History of use of reception
To find assonans in original poetic texts of the German poets quite difficult. One of rare and striking examples of use of this reception is "Alarkos" Schlegel. Generally assonans occurs in translated or imitative texts. In national poetry of Slavs assonans is the widespread, well mastered phenomenon. Very often the assonansny rhymes which are combined with alliteration in the next lines meet. Thus, at Slavs more or less developed rhyme is proved. Many authors of the 20th century also widely used in the texts assonans. Not less popular it remains also in modern poetry. Some researchers connect it with "a sincere nadorvannost" of modern creators. The impossibility of harmony and a pacification allegedly do not allow them to use severe looking of rhymes in the works.