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Assonance

Assonance is the rhyming of vowel sounds in nearby words: such as in 'time' and 'light'. There is some overlap with near-rhymes here, because assonance can also be the use of identical consonant sounds with different vowels: such as in chilled/called/fold/mild/failed/hurled.

Writing activity

Ask the children to write sentences that include at least two, but no more than three, of the words below. However, the words must come from different columns. They should be allowed, in fact encouraged, to add 'ing', 'ed' or other endings to some of the words as appropriate.

treat	wheel	peep	seen	dream	feed	thief	seek
feet	feel	sleep	lean	stream	greed	beneath	week
beat	heel	creep	green	scream	lead	chief	weak
cheat	steal	deep	queen	team	need	teeth	speak
heat	meal	leap	jeans	steam	speed	belief	cheek
meet	real	sheep	mean	cream	freed	underneath	beak

 

So, I'm looking for sentences such as:

Parent birds are feeding hungry beaks.
A thief came on creeping feet.
I needed to speak to the chief.
I was feeling all steamed up.
The monster had green teeth.

Each sentence that the children produce in this way is potentially the first line of a separate poem (or piece of short prose). Not a rhyming poem this time please, nor one liberally scattered with assonances of the 'ee' kind. Just the start of a piece of free verse, following the lead of the opening sentence, which will have its own natural rhythm (not meter) to set the tone.

If you build up a bank of word lists like this one, you'll have an endless supply of kick-off material. I know it's yet another bit of preparation, so why not ask a loved-one or a friendly parent. Many adults, who may never read poetry, love word challenges. And you work harder than they do anyway.

For more about free verse, see Volume 3 'Style, Shape and Structure', Chapter 2, 'But is it poetry?'

 

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