Sound and Meaning In Poetry

1. Sound and Meaning In Poetry

2. SOUND AND MEANING The function of poetry is to convey not only sounds, but meaning or experience through sounds. In good poetry, sound doesn’t exist for its own sake, or for decoration, but to enhance meaning. Its function is to enhance the leading player (meaning) and NOT to steal the show. (with sound) One way the poet may reinforce meaning though sound is with onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia doesn’t only have to express the sounds of animals (such as you learned in middle school like hiss, cock-a-doodle-do, and bow-wow) but to express the sounds and movements of actions. “The harness jingles” “the mourners creak”

3. Phonetic Intensive A word, whose sound, to some degree, connects with its meaning. An initial fl sound is often associated with moving light. Flicker, flame, flash, flare An initial gl sound is often associated with unmoving light. Glare, glint, gleam, glow, glisten, glimmer An initial sl sound is often associated with slippery & wet. Slush, slime, sloppy, slobber, slide, slick An initial st is often associated with strength. Stout, staunch, sturdy, steady, stable, stocky

4. A short i is often associated with smallness. Little, sip, kid, inch, imp, thin, chip, pigmy, mini, bit, snip A long o is often associated with melancholy. Moan, groan, mourn, toll, doom, gloom, moody, forlorn, woe There seems to be enough of an association between some sounds of certain words and their corresponding meanings or ideas to suggest an intrinsic relationship. A word like “flicker”, through its sound, suggests its meaning (moving light).

5. EIGHT O’CLOCK He stood, and heard the steeple Sprinkle the quarters on the morning town. One, two, three, four, to market-place and people It tossed them down. Strapped, noosed, nighing his hour, He stood and counted them and cursed his luck; And then the clock collected in the tower Its strength, and struck. A.E.Housman (1859-1936) What is this poem about? What is the contribution of the bolded words? What is the effect of the internal comma in the last stanza? What does the imagery of the clock collecting its strength suggest?

6. Answers: * This poem is about a person about to be hanged in the town center. the clock chimes every 15 minutes, counting down the time of his execution. * The repetition of the “c” and “str” sounds slow the reader down, helping to give special emphasis to the last word in the poem. * The internal comma places emphasis on the last word in stanza “struck”, giving it enormous force. * This imagery of the clock collecting its strength reinforces the harm that the clock can bring to the man about to be hanged. He stood, and heard the steeple Sprinkle the quarters on the morning town. One, two, three, four, to market-place and people It tossed them down. Strapped, noosed, nighing his hour, He stood and counted them and cursed his luck; And then the clock collected in the tower Its strength, and struck.

7. Another way poets can reinforce meaning through sound is to choose sounds and group them so that the effect is smooth –euphonious- (U-phone-e-us) or rough and harsh sounding- cacophonous (Ca caw phun ous). Vowels are generally more pleasing sounding than consonants. A line with more vowel sounds in proportion to consonant sounds will be more melodious. Some consonants are mellifluous (muh-LIF-loo-us) sometimes called “liquids”: L, M, N, R, F, V Some are harsher, such as the “plosives”: B,D,G,K,P,T These differences in sound are the poets materials, or equipment. Poets will use euphony and cacophony as they are appropriate to the content.

8. Enjambment is when the line break emphasizes the meaning of the phrase by creating a picture through the structure. ….and the rushing water overflows the banks. The water described actually flows, in a poetic sense, into the next line. Or it brings emphasis by creating a pause, or caesura, mid-line. Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the world and all our woe, With the loss of Eden, til one greater Man Restore us and regain the blissful seat…

9. Assonance: repetition of internal vowel sounds Assonance differs from RHYME in that RHYME is a similarity of vowel and consonant. Rhyme: Lake, Fake Assonance: Lake, fate Note its complex employment in the first STANZA of Thomas' "Ballad of the Long-Legged Bait": The bows glided down, and the coast Blackened with birds took a last look At his thrashing hair and whale-blue eye The trodden town rang its cobbles for luck. Poets may employ assonance to enhance the musicality of the poem, or to create mood and tone.