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Poetry Craft · Lesson 3
Sound: Rhyme, Alliteration, Assonance
The ear is half the poem. Pattern is pleasure — until it is too much.
16 min · Watch → Read → Apply → Prove
Step 1 · Watch
Watch & reflect
David Silverstein on why repetition pleases — and when it backfires.
Step 2 · Read
Name the device, then use it once on purpose
Pick one sound tool and make it audible in your own lines.
- Rhyme: like sounds at the ends of words (often line ends). Perfect rhyme is a chime; slant rhyme is a near miss that still rings.
- Alliteration: repeated starting consonants (wild wind).
- Assonance: repeated vowel sounds inside words (go / smoke).
- Repetition of a whole word or phrase is a drum. Use it for ritual or obsession — not filler.
Professionals rarely stack every device in one stanza. One clear pattern, then variation, is the craft.
Step 3 · Apply
Put it into practice
A short exercise to turn what you learned into skill.
Write at least two lines that use one named sound tool. Quote the words that make the sound.
Device must be one of: rhyme, alliteration, assonance, repetition.
Step 4 · Prove
Lesson test
Pass with 70% or higher to complete this lesson.