Elements of Poetry:

Sound Devices

DIRECTIONS:

1. Put these notes in your poetry packet, and be sure to include an example or

two of each device.

2. You may have to add some of the terms to the list, AND some of the terms in

the packet will not be included in this slide show.

3. Lastly, apply SOUND DEVICES and PUNCTUATION knowledge to the poem

“jump mama.” The “jump mama” analysis sheet is due at the end of the

period.

4. Use all of the study sheets from this week and last to review for tomorrow’s

poetry analysis test.

Sound Devices in Poetry

Poets are trying to use a concentrated blend of

sound and imagery to create an emotional

response.

The words and their order should evoke images,

And, words themselves have sounds, which can

reinforce or otherwise clarify those images.

So, sound devices are used

as EMPHASIS, to draw your attention to something

important

as PLEASURE by creating a pleasing effect

to REINFORCE MEANING or experience of poetry

by contributing to the theme.

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Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds, in two or more

neighboring words or syllables.

This is also known as “initial rhyme” because it is the initial sound

that is being repeated.

The wild and wooly walrus waits and wonders when we will walk by.

Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers, and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees…

-- from Silver by Walter de la Mare

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? (almost ALL tongue twisters!)

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Alliteration examples

Alliteration examples

Assonance

A repetition of vowel sounds within words or syllables.

The words would have to be fairly near each other for

the effect to work.

This is also known as the vowel rhyme.

Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese.

Free and easy.

Make the grade.

The stony walls enclosed the holy space.

Assonance examples

Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far.

It is among the oldest of living things.

So old it is that no man knows how and why the first

poems came.

--Carl Sandburg, Early Moon

“…on a proud round cloud

in white high night…”

- E. E. Cummings

“I made my way to

the lake.”

The Eagle

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Assonance example

Repetition

Words or phrases repeated in writings to give emphasis, rhythm, and/or a

sense of urgency.

Sometimes used to represent what the words say are happening. In Poe’s

poem, repetition of “bells” is reproducing the effect of the chiming of the

bells.

Example: from Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Bells”

To the swinging and the ringing

of the bells, bells, bells –

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells

Bells, bells, bells –

To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

Rhythm and Meter

Rhythm is the sound pattern created by stressed

and unstressed syllables.

The pattern can be regular or random.

Meter is the regular patterns of stresses

found in many poems and songs..

Rhythm is often combined with rhyme,

alliteration, and other poetic devices to add a musical quality to the writing.

Rhythm and Meter continued…

Example:

I think that I shall never see

a poem lovely as a tree.

The purple words/syllables are

“stressed”, and they have a regular pattern, so this poetic line has “meter”.

Rhyme

The repetition of end sounds in words

End rhymes appear at the end of two

or more lines of poetry.

Internal rhymes appear within a single

line of poetry.

Ring around the rosies,

A pocket full of posies,

Abednego was meek and mild; he softly spoke, he sweetly smiled.

He never called his playmates names, and he was good in running games;

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of end rhymes (of lines) in a poem.

Letters are used to identify a poem’s rhyme scheme (a.k.a rhyme pattern).

The letter a is placed after the first line and all lines that rhyme with the first line.

The letter b identifies the next line ending with a new sound, and all lines that rhyme with it.

Letters continue to be assigned in sequence to lines containing new ending sounds.

This may seem confusing, but it isn’t. Really!

Rhyme Scheme continued…

Examples:

Twinkle, twinkle little star a

How I wonder what you are. a

Up above the earth so high, b

Like a diamond in the sky. b

Baa, baa, black sheep a

Have you any wool? b

Yes sir, yes sir, c

Three bags full. b

Rhyme Scheme continued…

What is the rhyme scheme of this stanza?

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

From Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Did you get it right? aaba

Whose woods these are I think I know. a

His house is in the village though; a

He will not see me stopping here b

To watch his woods fill up with snow. a

Cacauphony (cack-AH-fun-ee)

Discordant sounds in the jarring juxtaposition of harsh

letters or syllables, used in poetry for effect, as in the

opening line of Fences:

Crawling, sprawling, breaching spokes of stone

Sound devices are important to poetic effects; to create

sounds appropriate to the content, the poet may prefer to

achieve a cacophonous effect instead of the more

commonly sought-for euphony (upcoming definition).

The use of words with the consonants b, k and p, for

example, produce harsher sounds than the soft f and v or

the liquid l, m and n.

Euphony (YOU-fuh-nee)

Harmony or beauty of sound that provides a

pleasing effect to the ear, usually sought to

reinforce a theme or simply for the pleasure of

the sound.

It is achieved not only by the selection of

individual word-sounds, but also by their

relationship in the repetition, proximity, and flow

of sound patterns

Euphony is sometimes achieved with

assonance sounds, soft sounds, or lesser

punctuation

Onomatopoeia

Words that sound like their meaning ---

the “sound” they describe.

buzz… hiss… roar… meow… woof… rumble…

howl… snap… zip… zap… blip… whack …

crack… crash… flutter… flap… squeak… whirr..

pow… plop… crunch… splash… jingle… rattle…

clickety-clack… bam!