The Tools of Poetry 3:Sound Effects

English I HonorsMr. Popovich

Rhythm in Poetry

Like music, poetry is based on rhythm.

In English, rhythm is created by stressed syllables.

But remember that it is different in other languages.

Rhythm in Poetry

• The use of rhythm in poetry can take the form of • Either metrical verse

– a strict pattern of a certain number of stressed and unstressed syllables in each line of the poem

– metrical verse usually includes a rhyme scheme– but it may not rhyme (this is called blank verse)

• Or free verse – a loose rhythm that sounds like natural speech– typically does not use a rhyme scheme– But does use other sound effects

In metrical verse, the stressed and unstressed syllables are arranged in a regular pattern.

Listen to this excerpt. Mark stressed syllables (′).

Meter

The mountain mists, condensing at our voice

Under the moon, had spread their snowy flakes,

From the keen ice shielding our linkèd sleep.

—from “Prometheus Unbound” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’

’ ˘ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’

˘ ˘ ’ ’ ’ ˘ ˘ ’ ˘ ’

Now mark the unstressed (˘) syllables of each line.Marking a poem this way is called scanning it.

Is this an example of rhymed verse or blank verse?

Verse is made up of metrical units called feet.

A foot consists of at least one stressed syllable and usually one or more unstressed syllables.

FOOT TYPE SCANSION EXAMPLE

Iamb Unstressed-Stressed insist

Trochee Stressed-Unstressed double

Anapest Unstressed-Unstressed-Stressed understand

Dactyl Stressed-Unstressed-Unstressed excellent

Spondee Stressed-Stressed football

˘ ’

’ ˘˘ ˘ ’

’ ’ ’ ˘ ˘

Feet

Lines

• Lines of verse are categorized according to: • What kind of foot it contains,

– see previous chart– convert to an adjective

• How many feet it contains, – tetra = four– penta = five– hexa = six

• And ends in the suffix –meter– which means “measure”

By the shores of Gitchee Gumee—from “Song of Hiawatha” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks of—from “Evangeline” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When wasteful war shall statues overturn, —from “Sonnet 55” by William Shakespeare

Verse

Iambic Pentameter

Dactylic Hexameter

Trochaic Tetrameter ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘

Using scansion symbols, write out:• What does Trochaic Tetrameter look like?• What does Dactylic Hexameter look like?• What does Iambic Pentameter look like?

Quick Check

’ ˘ ˘ ’ ˘ ˘ ’ ˘ ˘ ’ ˘ ˘ ’ ˘ ˘ ’ ˘ ˘

˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’

Because it is “free” of metrical rules, free verse sounds more like everyday speech than verse.

Free verse is a kind of poetry that does not have a regular meter or a fixed rhyme scheme.

Never, in all your career of worrying, did you imagine

what worries could occur concerning the flying cat.

You are traveling to a distant city.

The cat must travel in a small box with holes.—from “The Flying Cat” by Naomi Shihab Nye

Free Verse

Rhyme is the repetition of the accented vowel sound and all subsequent sounds in a word.

A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years.

—from “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal” by William Wordsworth

Rhyme

Listen to this excerpt. What words rhyme?

End rhyme occurs at the ends of lines.

Internal rhyme is rhyme within a line.

This knowledge, from an Angel's voiceProceeding, made the heart rejoice

—from “The Pilgrim’s Dream” by William Wordsworth

The sails at noon left off their tune,—from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Rhyme

• In an exact rhyme, the words rhyme perfectly.

heart—startflicker—thickerordering—bordering

• In an approximate rhyme, the sounds are similar but not exactly the same.

light—latewhisper—winterbays—waves

Rhymes may be exact or approximate.

Rhyme

exact rhymes: numb/comefrore/more

approximate rhymes:again/green/pain

Rhyme

Identify the exact and approximate end rhymes in these stanzas.

Quick CheckAll suddenly the wind comes soft,And Spring is here again;And the hawthorn quickens with buds of

green,  And my heart with buds of pain.

My heart all Winter lay so numbThe earth so dead and froreThat I never thought the Spring would

comeOr my heart wake any more.

—from “Song” by Rupert Brooke

Example: “A long, long yellow on the lawn” —Emily Dickenson

Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in words that appear close together.

Other Sound Effects

Consonance is the repetition of internal and final (but not initial) consonant sounds in words.

Example: “As in guys she gently sways at ease” —Robert Frost

Assonance is the repetition of internal vowel sounds.

Example: “The crumbling thunder under the sea” —R.L. Stevenson

Alliteration: silken/sad

Consonance: uncertain/rustling

Other Sound Effects

Identify the alliteration, consonance, and assonance in this line.

Quick CheckAnd the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

—from “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe

Assonance: purple/curtain

The End