Sound Effects in Poetry
Beyond 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.
˘ he
´ was
˘ ´always
˘ ´quietly
˘ ´ ˘ arrayed,
´!
And
˘ he
´ was
˘ always
´ ˘ ´human
˘ when
´ ˘ he´!talked.
And
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
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.
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again . . .
a
b
a
b
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.
Internal Rhyme
Internal rhyme occurs inside a line of a poem or within
consecutive lines.
Unwarmed by any sunset light
The gray day darkened into night,
A night made hoary with the swarm
And 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 tone
To the savage air, no social smoke
Curled over wood of snow-hung oak.
A solitude made more intense
By dreary-voicëd elements
from Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyll by John Greenleaf Whittier
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.
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
Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of similar vowel sounds
followed by different consonant sounds, especially in
words close together.
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
Consonance
Consonance is the repetition of the same or similar final
consonant sounds on accented syllables or in important
words.
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
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
• thump
• swish
• rumble
• twitter
• roar
• groan
• howl
What Have You Learned?
Match each word with its definition. Alliteration
Assonance
Onomatopoeia
Rhyme scheme
Alliteration
______________—
repetition of the same or similar consonant
sounds in words that are close together
Onomatopoeia
______________— use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests
its meaning
Rhyme
scheme
______________—
pattern of rhymed lines in a poem
Assonance
______________—
repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by
different consonant sounds in words that are
close together
The End