The Sounds of Poetry

1. The Sounds of Poetry Feature Menu • Rhythm in Poetry • Meter • Free Verse • Rhyme • Alliteration and Onomatopoeia • Practice

2. Rhythm in Poetry Like music, poetry is based on rhythm—the alternation of stressed and unstressed sounds that makes the voice rise and fall.

3. Rhythm in Poetry Poetic rhythm can take the form of • free versea loose kind of rhythm that sounds like natural speech • metera strict rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in each line [End of Section]

4. ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ˘ ’ ’’ ˘ ˘ ’˘ ’ Meter In metrical poetry,stressed and unstressed syllables are arranged in a regular pattern. Listen to this excerpt. Which syllables are stressed in each line? 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 ’ = stressed syllable ˘ = unstressed syllable

5. Meter Marking the stressed (′)and unstressed (˘)syllables of each line is called scanning a poem. 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 ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ˘ ’ ’’ ˘ ˘ ’˘ ’ Varying the meter

6. Meter Metrical poetry is made up of metrical units called feet. A foot consists of at least one stressed syllable and usually one or more unstressed syllables. ˘ ’ ’ ˘ ˘ ˘ ’ ’ ˘ ˘ ’ ’

7. Meter Identify the dominant metrical foot in these lines: iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, or spondee. Quick Check Tell me not, in mournful numbers, from “A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow I am monarch of all I survey; from “The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk” by W. Cowper When wasteful war shall statues overturn, from “Sonnet 55” by William Shakespeare [End of Section]

8. Free Verse Free verse is poetry that does not have a regular meter or 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 Because it is “free” of metric rules, free verse sounds more like prose or everyday speech than formal poetry. [End of Section] The Imagists

9. Rhyme Rhyme is the repetition of the accented vowel sound and all subsequent sounds in a word. Listen to this excerpt. What words rhyme? 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

10. Rhyme The chiming sounds of rhyme • punctuate the poem’s rhythm • give the poem structure • make the poem easier to remember

11. This knowledge, from an Angel's voice Proceeding, 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 End rhyme is rhyme that occurs at the ends of lines. Internal rhyme is rhyme within a line.

12. Rhyme Rhymes may be exact or approximate. • In anapproximate rhyme, the sounds are similar but not exactly the same. • In an exact rhyme, the words rhyme perfectly. light—late whisper—winter bays—waves heart—start flicker—thicker ordering—bordering

13. Rhyme Quick Check Identify the exact and approximate end rhymes in these stanzas. All 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 numb The earth so dead and frore That I never thought the Spring would come Or my heart wake any more. —from “Song” by Rupert Brooke [End of Section]

14. Alliteration and Onomatopoeia Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in words that appear close together. Listen to this excerpt. What consonant sound is repeated? A long, long yellow on the lawn, A hubbub as of feet; Not audible, as ours to us, But dapperer, more sweet; from “A long, long yellow on the lawn” by Emily Dickinson More about alliteration

15. Alliteration and Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is the use of words that sound like what they mean. Listen to this excerpt. What word is an example of onomatopoeia? Here the water went down, the icebergs slid with gravel, the gaps and the valleys hissed from “Prairie” by Carl Sandburg

16. Alliteration and Onomatopoeia Quick Check In this excerpt, find at least two examples of alliteration and onomatopoeia. I shall come near your window, where you look out when your eyes open in the morning, And there I shall slam together bird-houses and bird-baths for wing-loose wrens and hummers to live in, birds with yellow wing tips to blur and buzz soft all summer, from “Broken-face Gargoyles” by Carl Sandburg [End of Section]

17. Practice • As in ancient days, when poetry was not written but only spoken or sung, poetry today is addressed to the ear. You can’t really say that you know a poem until you’ve heard it read aloud. • Choose one of the poems you’ve read in this chapter (or any favorite poem), and read it aloud to yourself and then to a partner or a small group. • Then, write a paragraph or two discussing the poem’s rhythm, rhyme, or other sound effects. [End of Section]

18. The End