What does assonance mean? Assonance: examples in the literature

Artistic text is a space organized in a special way. Its main task is to influence the emotional component of the reader's personality, to touch his inner world, to touch the hidden strings. The education of the beautiful, the awakening of love for the world, its beauty, aesthetic impact - these are the landmarks to which the masters of the artistic word aspire.

Linguistic imagery

One of such organizational "tools" of the literary text is assonance. Examples of its use, we can meet often, without even knowing what it is. Here are the famous lines of Alexander Blok: "Oh, spring without end and without edge / Without end and without a bound of a dream ..." How do they sound? Stretchy, free, melodic. Like a breath of sweet, fresh spring air. What creates this amazing effect? Assonance. An example of how the repetition of the same vowel sounds can improve speech, makes it clear how effective it is. Emotional-visual images, which are born thanks to this poetic reception, are bright, strong, really palpable. This creates the effect of presence, detail.

Possibilities of artistic reception

This is also an amazing assonance. Examples of the textbook lines from Neznakomki of the same Blok clearly demonstrate the beauty of the language, the euphony of the Russian syllable, the sublime romanticism of the image of the main heroine of the poem: "Breathing in perfume and fog / She sits at the window." Thus, in an artistic, and especially a poetic text, an important role is played not only by the semantic but also by the phonetic side of speech. To convey the mood, create an emotional message, to expose the "nerve" of the verse, its energy tension - all this can assonance. Examples of its organizing role prove the wide possibilities of this artistic technique.

Origin of the phenomenon

As we have seen, the repetition of identical vowel sounds performs certain functions in speech. Masters of the word - who consciously, who intuitively - often use the technique for giving poetry euphonious, more vivid expression of associative-semantic connections. Assonance in literature originates from Greek rhapsodists, music storytellers. In our language, the term came from French and translates as "consonance." However, in Russian folklore, in folk songs, it exists from time immemorial, since it is inherently inherent in our phonetic system. Classical assonance - poems, or rather the poetic lines of Lermontov from Borodino, reproducing the sound structure of the people's speech: "At our ears on the vertex ...".

To the question of terminology

However, the nature of this phenomenon is of a dual nature. In literary criticism, it is customary to understand not only the use of identical vowels in nearby words and adjacent lines, that is, sound recording, but also the concordance of finite syllables, ie, rhymes. True, it is proposed to take into account exactly the same vowels, while consonants may not coincide. Examples of the assonance in verse in this respect look like this: "rain is waiting," "battle is love," "give," etc. These are the so-called assonance, or incomplete, rhymes. Especially often they can be encountered in the poetry of Mayakovsky.

The Role of Assonance

So, alliteration and assonance are examples of the important role played by sound recording in prosaic, and especially in poetic speech. These techniques make it possible to identify the semantic centers of artistic texts, the so-called key words. Here is the famous Yesenin: "I do not regret, I do not call, I do not cry ... / Wilted gold covered ...". The vowel "e", "y / y" and the consonants "l", "h", "n" give the lines the famous softness and melody with which Yesenin's poetry is famous. And the incomplete rhyme "crying-ridden" does not spoil the overall impression, but corresponds to it. Another vivid example of the interaction of sound recording means is Marshak's children's poems: "In the sky the sky / The thunder of thunder passed ..." The repetition of the sonorous consonants "p" - rolling, sonorous, in combination with the repeating "o", imitates with incredible accuracy the sounds of the unraveling elements. In the context of the entire poem - cheerful, cheerful, funny, and these sounds are not perceived anxiously, cautiously, and life-affirming. And a completely different impression arises in our reading of Blok's Factory. The first phrase with the assonance "o" creates some painful tension, unpleasant and ominous: "In ... the window house zholty ...". Further, as you immerse yourself in the poetic text, the atmosphere of despondency and hopelessness intensifies. The original correct tone helped Blok to reveal the theme and idea of the work not only on the figurative, semantic level, but also through the sound shell of key words. What conclusion can be drawn from the above examples? Such that assonance is the strongest means of poetic linguistic expressiveness.

Assonance and rhythm

It is characteristic that the assonance is inherent in the first syllabic system of versification. Consequently, it also plays an organizational and decisive role. After all, a certain number of vowels creates a rhythmic drawing of the lines separately and verse as a whole. In this regard, assonance can be compared to percussion instruments in music. In addition, the phenomenon of sound recording is interrelated with the longitude of vowel sounds. Their coloring in certain moods is not permanent. The surroundings of other sounds have their influence on them. Approximate rhymes, more and more popular in modern poetry, may not correspond to classical harmony, but they impart a certain dynamics and energy to the rhythm and movement of the verse. And at the same time can help to convey, for example, the state of mental dissension, dissonance, duality and even despair, which overwhelm the author and his lyrical hero. Hence, this artistic method, in addition to its main purpose, is almost a universal instrument of "poetic cuisine." It is multifunctional, therefore from this point of view the use of assonances was recommended by our other poets, such as Trediakovsky, Sumarokov, Derzhavin. The development of literary mastery perfected, honed the ability to use the sound organization of the text not only directly, but also indirectly. If you look into the creative laboratory of any talented writer, you can study his drafts, then you can understand what kind of titanic work he is doing, choosing exactly those words, that sound envelope that would be optimal for this work.