Sound Devices and Rhyme
Quickchat with colleagues:
How can the sound of a poem affect
its meaning?
SOUND DEVICES – the effects that the
sound of a word has when read aloud
ALLITERATION— is the repetition of the initial
sound in two or more words in a line of verse.
Connects words/phrases and sounds gratifying.
Sneaky snakes slide side-straddle.
ONOMATOPOEIA— is the use of a word to
represent or imitate natural sounds. Sound
reflects meaning. (buzz, crunch, gurgle, sizzle,
hiss, humm)
More Sound Devices
ASSONANCE—is the similarity or repetition of a vowel
sound (not just letter) in two or more words. Lake and
stake are rhymes; lake and fate are assonance. Base and
face are rhymes; base and fate are assonance.
The Twitter fit pitched was quick and brief.
Cursed by he who moves my bones
CONSONANCE—is the repetition of consonant sounds
within a line of verse. Consonance is similar to alliteration
except that consonance doesn’t limit the repeated sound
to the initial letter or a word.
But such a tide as moving seems asleep.
The pitter patter of droplets tickled my face.
More Sound Devices
REFRAIN—is the repetition of one or more
phrases or lines at intervals in a poem,
usually at the end of a stanza. The refrain
often takes the form of a chorus.
REPETITION—is the reiterating of a word or
phrase within a poem.
Enjambment vs. End-Stopped
• ENJAMBMENT—in poetry, the running over of a
sentence from one verse or stanza into the next
without stopping at the end of the first. When
the sentence or meaning does stop at the end of
the line it is called—END-STOPPED LINE.
END-STOPPED
A line can be end-stopped, just like this one,
Or it can show enjambment, just like this
One, where the sense straddles two lines: you feel
As if from shore you’d stepped into a boat.
ENJAMBED
END-STOPPED
2 Major Types of Rhyme
Internal
Words rhyme in the
middle of a line
External
Words rhyme at ends of
lines
2 Kinds of Rhyme
INTERNAL
But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”
EXTERNAL
What this grim, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking `Nevermore.‘
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”
Annotating End Rhyme Schemes
• Start with the letter A and assign it to the
end of line 1
• Ask yourself if the end of line 2 rhymes
with line 1. If it does, write A next to the
end of line 2. If it doesn’t, give it the next
letter – b.
• And so on…
Different Rhyme Schemes
• pattern of rhyme between lines of a poem or
song
• For example:
–Roses are Red
–Violets are Blue
–Pencils have lead
–Sabolcik teaches all of you.
A
B
A
B
A few precepts* about rhyme…
• We tend to connect/associate rhyming words
in our minds
• We tend to like it when rhymes are completed
• Rhymes tend to finalize/complete sections of
thoughts
• *Not always true!
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21 Pilots, “Stressed Out”
I wish I found some better sounds no one’s ever heard,
I wish I had a better voice that sang a better word,
I wish I found some chords in an order that is new,
I wish I didn't have to rhyme every time I sang.
What’s the effect of the broken rhyme
scheme?
KINDS OF RHYME: The kinds of rhyme
based on the number of syllables
presenting a similarity of sound are:
MASCULINE RHYME—occurs when one syllable of a word rhymes with another
word: (effect tends to be decisive and bold; complete)
bend and send; bright and light
FEMININE RHYME—occurs when the last two syllables of a word rhyme with
another word: (effect tends to be more lyrical, elegant, and free)
lawful and awful; lighting and fighting; Some lines really should stay single: /
Feminine rhymes can make them jingle.
TRIPLE RHYME—occurs when the last three syllables of a word or line rhyme:
victorious and glorious; quivering and shivering; battering and shattering; A
serious effect is often killable / By rhyming with too much more than one
syllable.
Other Rhyme Forms
• NEAR, OFF, or SLANT RHYME: A rhyme based on an
imperfect or incomplete correspondence of end syllable
sounds.
• Common in the work of Emily Dickinson, for instance:
It was not death, for I stood up,
And all the dead lie down.
It was not night, for all the bells
Put out their tongues for noon.
Read the poem, “Stopping by Woods
on a Snowy Evening””
Identify sound devices and rhyme
scheme in the poem AND analyze
how they contribute to greater
effects.
Read Carroll’s poem, “Jabberwocky”
Identify sound devices and rhyme in
the poem AND analyze how they
contribute to greater effects.
Alice on “Jabberwocky”
• "It seems very pretty," she said when she had
finished it, "but it's rather hard to
understand!" (You see she didn't like to
confess, even to herself, that she couldn't
make it out at all.) "Somehow it seems to fill
my head with ideas—only I don't exactly know
what they are! However, somebody killed
something: that's clear, at any rate."