Consonance - GCSE English Literature Definition

What is consonance?

Consonance is the repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds within a group of words. The sounds can come anywhere within the words, and it might involve the same repeated letter (the “ck” sound in “tick tock” or “cr” in “creak” and “croak”) or different spellings altogether (such as the “ch” sounds in “future” and “church”). 

Why do writers use consonance?

Consonance can make writing more memorable, contribute to mood and atmosphere, or emphasise certain words and ideas, and writers use it in many different forms of writing, from poetry and song lyrics, to newspaper headlines and persuasive speeches.

The repetition of sounds through consonance can also help writers to create half rhyme in poetry.

Examples of consonance

I stumbled in his hobnailed wake,

Fell sometimes on the polished sod

In these lines from Seamus Heaney’s 'Follower', a poem about a son learning the plough from his farmer father, the consonant “b” has a jarring effect. This reflects the awkward steps of the young boy as he struggles to walk in his father’s footsteps. 

                    make thick my blood;

Stop up the access and passage to remorse,

That no compunctious visitings of nature

Shake my fell purpose

In these lines from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth prays for dark spirits to fill her with the cruelty necessary to convince Macbeth to murder King Duncan. Here, the consonance of the hard “ck” and “c” sounds adds a fierce, bitter quality, emphasising the evil nature of her plot.