Sound Effects in PoetryBeyond Words

What Are Sound Effects?

Sounds effects are literary devices writers use to make the sounds of a work convey and enhance its meaning. Sound effects poets use include

•rhythm and meter

•rhyme

•alliteration

•assonance and consonance

•repetition

•onomatopoeia

Rhythm and Meter

•Rhythm is the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language. Rhythm occurs naturally in all forms of spoken and written language.

•Meter is the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.

•One meter commonly used in poetry is iambic meter—an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Here is an example.

And he was always quietly arrayed,

And he was always human when he talked.from “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson

˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´

˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´

Rhyme

Rhyme is the repetition of vowel sounds in accented syllables and succeeding syllables. Types of rhyme include

• end rhyme

• internal rhyme

• approximate, or slant, rhyme

Love is not all: it is not meat nor drinkNor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men that sinkAnd rise and sink and rise and sink again . . .

from “Sonnet XXX” by Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Sonnet XXX" of Fatal Interview from Collected Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Copyright © 1931, 1958 by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Norma Millay Ellis. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of Elizabeth Barnett, Literary Executor.

End Rhyme

End rhyme refers to rhyming words at the end of lines.

•End rhymes usually follow a regular pattern within a poem, called its rhyme scheme.

a

ab

b

Internal Rhyme

Internal rhyme occurs inside a line of a poem or within consecutive lines.

Unwarmed by any sunset lightThe gray day darkened into night,A night made hoary with the swarmAnd whirl-dance of the blinding storm,As zigzag, wavering to and fro,Crossed and recrossed the wingëd snow:

from Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyll by John Greenleaf Whittier

Approximate Rhyme

Approximate rhyme uses rhyming sounds that are similar but not exact. Approximate rhymes may also be called slant rhymes, off rhymes, half rhymes, or imperfect rhymes.

•Approximate rhymes catch the audience off guard, much like unexpected sharp or flat notes in music.

The sun through dazzling snow mist shone.No church bell lent its Christian toneTo the savage air, no social smokeCurled over wood of snow-hung oak.A solitude made more intenseBy dreary-voicëd elements

from Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyll by John Greenleaf Whittier

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;The little waves, with their soft, white hands,Efface the footprints in the sands, And the tide rises, the tide falls.

from “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together.

•Alliteration can create a musical effect or help establish a mood.

On this green bank, by this soft stream, We set today the votive stone;That memory may their deed redeem When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

from “Concord Hymn” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Assonance

Assonance is the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds, especially in words close together.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world.

from “Concord Hymn” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Consonance

Consonance is the repetition of the same or similar final consonant sounds on accented syllables or in important words.

Repetition

Repetition is a unifying property of repeated words, sounds, syllables, and other elements that appear in a work.

•As a sound effect, repetition can create rhythm or enhance a mood or emotional effect.

I’ve known rivers:Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like rivers.

from “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is the use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning. Such words include

•buzz

•swish

•twitter

•groan

•thump

•rumble

•roar

•howl

Match each word with its definition.

______________— repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together

______________— use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning

______________— pattern of rhymed lines in a poem

______________— repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in words that are close together

Alliteration Assonance Onomatopoeia Rhyme scheme

What Have You Learned?

Assonance

Alliteration

Onomatopoeia

Rhyme scheme

The End