Sound Devices“producing music in poetry”

Alliteration: the repetition of beginning consonant sounds in two or more words near each other

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

or

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee

**all sound devices pertain to words that are “relatively close together”

Assonance: when the vowel sound is repeated in the middle of more than one word where the other sounds are different

And so, all the night tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling – my darling – my life and my bride.

Consonance: when the consonant sound is repeated at the end of words and the vowel sounds are different

Examples: “hot” and “cat” or “young” and “strong”

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Diction: a writer’s choice of words– Formal, informal, slang, poetic, ornate, abstract,

etc.

Identify the diction:

“You are all kindness, Madame; but we must abide by our original plan.” (Pride & Prejudice)

“Ain’t everybody’s daddy the deadest shot in Maycomb County?” (To Kill a Mockingbird)

Iambic Pentameter “The Art of the Poet”

10-syllable lines of rhymed, unstressed/stress meter. The stressed syllables are purple.

‘T’is three o’clock; and, Romans, yet ere night

We shall try fortune in a second fight

FYI: Shakespeare’s plays are about 90 % verse and 6% prose

Label the unstressed/stressed syllables

And after this let Caesar seat him sure:

For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

Cassius: I.ii.321-322

When iambic pentameter is read out loud it will follow a beat such as –da DUM, da-DUM or toe-heel, toe-heel

Rhythm & Meter

Meter: regular rhythm involving stressed and unstressed syllablesTypes of Feet

Iamb: - / Anapest: - - /Trochee: / - Dactyl: / - -Spondee: / /

*Each of these are one metrical foot

Label the meter in each of these lines:

Because I could not stop for death

He kindly stopped for me.

iambic tetrameter

iambic trimeter

Types of Meter

Dimeter – 2 feetTetrameter – 4 feet

Trimeter – 3 feetPentameter – 5 feet

Poetry scansion: when you mark the syllables and the rhyme scheme

Hickory Dickory Dock,

The mouse ran up the

clock.

The clock struck one,

The mouse ran down!

Hickory Dickory Dock.

Onomatopoeia: the use of words to imitate the sounds they describe

“crack” or “whir”

“Gr-r-r—there go, my heart’s abhorrence!”

Rhyme: when the ending vowel and consonant sounds are the same in two

or more words.

End rhyme: words rhyming at the end of poetic lines

It's enough to make me weep... And all because of that little creep

Internal rhyme: one or both rhyming words occur in the middle of a line

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

Scan these lines

Nothing Gold Can Stay

by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Identify the sound devicesStopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know. (consonance )His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping here (assonance)To watch his woods fill up with snow. (alliteration)My little horse must think it queerTo stop without a farmhouse near (assonance)Between the woods and frozen lake (consonance) The darkest evening of the year.He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. (consonance)The only other sound's the sweep (alliteration)Of easy wind and downy flake.The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Free Verse Assignment:– write a paragraph entitled “Who Am I”– break the paragraph into lines– revise the lines until they look, feel, and

sound right to you– turn in your poem