Poetry: Sound Effects
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The Music of Language
Rhyme: Chiming Sounds
Alliteration: Repeating a Sound
Meter: The Beat of a Poem
Practice
The Music of Language
Listen to the words of this familiar song.
Now read the
words.
Which words
and lines
rhyme?
A
A
B
C
C
C
B
My country ‘tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim’s pride
From ev’ry mountain side,
Let freedom ring.
The Music of Language
Are any other sounds repeated—besides the
rhymes?
The consonant L
repeats in several
words that are
close together.
My country ‘tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim’s pride
From ev’ry mountain side,
Let freedom ring.
The Music of Language
Finally, tap out the beat, or rhythm, of the song.
Which lines have 1
2
similar beats?
3
4
What about
5
this line?
7
My country ‘tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim’s pride
From ev’ry mountain side,
Let freedom ring.
Some people sing line 6 with the same rhythm
as lines 4 and 5. How do you sing line 6?
[End of Section]
Rhyme: Chiming Sounds
Rhyme makes the music in poetry. It also helps
you memorize poems and songs.
Most rhymes are made by repeating similar sounds
in the last words of different lines.
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim’s pride
From ev’ry mountain side,
These are called end rhymes.
Rhyme: Chiming Sounds
Rhymes are based on the sound, not the spelling,
of words.
Rhyming words
Non-rhyming words
gruff, tough
ice, police
trees, breeze
try, pantry
army, levee
dew, sew
sew, toe
hour, your
Rhyme: Chiming Sounds
Sometimes the last word in a line will be echoed
by a word at the beginning or in the middle of
another line.
My country ‘tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
These are called internal rhymes.
Rhyme: Chiming Sounds
Here’s the beginning of “The Cremation of Sam
McGee,” a well-known poem by Robert W. Service.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night in the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
What are the end rhymes?
Rhyme: Chiming Sounds
What internal rhymes do you see?
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night in the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
What effect does this much internal rhyme have
on the way you read this poem?
Rhyme: Chiming Sounds
Rhyme is often very simple:
moth / cloth
Other rhyming words are
more complicated:
antelope / cantaloupe
Sometimes more than one word is needed for the
rhyme:
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling;
Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats, . . .
Robert Browning
from “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”
[End of Section]
Alliteration: Repeating a Sound
Alliteration is the repetition of a single consonant
sound in words that are close together.
Alliteration is one of the simplest forms of
repetition a poet can use.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Now look at the /s/ sounds in this tongue twister.
She sells seashells by the seashore.
What might make this tongue twister more
complicated?
Alliteration: Repeating a Sound
Listen to this poem
by Gwendolyn
Brooks.
Which sounds are
repeated?
Why do you think
the poet repeats
/s/ and /sh/
sounds?
Cynthia in the Snow
It SHUSHES.
It hushes
The loudness in the road.
It flitter-twitters,
And laughs away from me.
It laughs a lovely whiteness,
And whitely whirs away,
To be
Some otherwhere,
Still white as milk or shirts.
So beautiful it hurts.
[End of Section]
Meter: The Beat of a Poem
Meter is a regular pattern of accented and
unaccented syllables.
“There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold; . . .”
You can’t miss the beat in lines like these.
Meter: The Beat of a Poem
If a poet decides to write lines with a regular beat,
the lines will usually be of the same length and
have the same number of syllables.
Great/
“Great rats,/
rats, small
smallrats,
/rats,/
lean
lean/
rats,rats,/
brawny
braw/ny
rats, /rats,
Brown /rats,/
rats, black
black
rats,
/rats,/
graygray
rats,/rats,
tawny
/taw/ny
rats, . /rats,
. .”
How many syllables are in each line above?
Meter: The Beat of a Poem
In poetry with a regular beat, the lines will usually
have the same groupings of accented ( ’ ) and
unaccented ( ˘ ) syllables.
’
’
’ rats,
’ ˘ rats,
˘
˘
“Great
rats,
small
rats,
lean
brawny
˘
˘
’
’
’ rats,
’ ˘ rats,
˘ black
˘
˘ . . .”
Brown
rats,
rats,
gray
tawny
˘
Meter: The Beat of a Poem
A poet might also decide to ignore meter
completely.
Poems made up of loose groupings of words and
phrases are called free verse.
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains
of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
Walt Whitman
from Song of Myself
Meter: The Beat of a Poem
Line length and the number of syllables can be
important in free verse too.
For example, Japanese haiku have a strict form:
three lines with a total of seventeen syllables.
An old silent pond . . .
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
Matsuo Bashō
Lines 1 and 3 must have five syllables, and line 2
must have seven syllables.
[End of Section]
Practice
Let’s Try It
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1. Is this poem
rhymed or
unrhymed?
2. Does the poem
have end rhymes?
3. Does the poem
have internal
rhymes?
Practice
Let’s Try It
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1. Is this poem
rhymed or
unrhymed?
This poem is
rhymed.
Practice
Let’s Try It
The Eagle
2. Does the poem
have end rhymes?
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
Yes, the poem has
end rhymes.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Practice
Let’s Try It
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
3. Does the poem
have internal
rhymes?
No, the poem does
not have any
internal rhymes,
only end rhymes.
Practice
Let’s Try It
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
4. Find two
examples of
alliteration in the
poem.
5. Does this poem
have a regular
meter, or is it
more like
conversation?
Practice
Let’s Try It
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
4. Find two
examples of
alliteration in the
poem.
The poet repeats
/c/ and /l/ sounds.
Practice
Let’s Try It
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
5. Does this poem
have a regular
meter, or is it
more like
conversation?
This poem has a
regular meter.
Practice
Let’s Try It
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
6. Give two
reasons this poem
is not free verse.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
[End of Section]
Practice
Let’s Try It
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
6. Give two
reasons this poem
is not free verse.
This poem has
end rhymes and
a regular beat, or
meter.
Poetry: Sound Effects
The End