&glosstext=<b>ASSONANCE:</b><br><br>When two or more words used closely together in a poem have the same vowel sound (a, e, i, o, u ). The broad or long vowels (a, o, u,) slow down the line and take longer to say than the slender or short vowels (i, e). See if you can spot the difference between long and short vowels in the following examples:<br><br>		B<b>u</b>s / P<b>u</b>t<br>		Fl<b>o</b>at / C<b>o</b>pe<br>		P<b>e</b>at / R<b>e</b>ach<br><br>In 'When You Are Old' W. B. Yeats uses assonance particularly with broad vowel sounds. In the opening stanza we find the repetition of broad "o" sounds:<br><br>		When you are <b><U>o</U></b>ld and grey and full of sleep,<br>		And nodding by the fire take d<B><U>o</U></B>wn this book,<br>		And sl<B><U>o</U></B>wly read and dream of the soft look<br>		Your eyes had once and of their shad<B><U>o</U></b>ws deep<br><br>When looking for assonance dont rely on spelling as a guide as assonance only occurs when words have the same vowel sound. In the above line, both <u>o</U>ld and n<U>o</U>dding have an o but the actual sound of the vowel is different in each case.