Poetry and sound devices
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Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
Margaret Layton © 2016
Poetry and sound devices
1. The origin of the terms
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Poetry derives its name from the Greek verb poiêin
which means ‘to create’. It was born as an oral art,
generally accompanied by dancing and music and is the
oldest form of literature.
People used poetry as a means
to express the most
remarkable events
in their lives.
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to convey the
feelings associated
with them.
Poetry and sound devices
2. Musical patterns
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Poetry is characterised by musical patterns of sounds
which are based on the natural qualities
of spoken language.
Its language is far more condensed and intensified:
the poet combines words to make his reader feel what
he has felt and experience what he has experienced.
Poetry and sound devices
3. Basic structurals units
The structural units of poetry are
the line
(the basic unit)
the stanza
(a section of a poem
which consists of
several lines)
the canto
or book
All these can vary almost infinitely
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A line of poetry in English is usually from eight to
twelve syllables in length.
Stanzas are normally from two to twelve lines long.
Poetry and sound devices
4. Common types of stanzas
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The types of stanzas are:
- the couplet (two lines);
- the tercet (three lines);
- the quatrain (four lines);
- the sestet (six lines);
- the octave (eight lines).
A complete poem may consist of only two lines, as in the
case of the epigram, while narrative poems may extend
over thousands of lines.
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Poetry and sound devices
5. Rhythm
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Rhythm generally refers to the pace or speed
of a poem.
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While the Italian language is syllable-timed, English is
stress-timed.
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Stress is much more important to rhythm
than syllables.
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Poetry and sound devices
6. Metre
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An important part of the rhythm is metre, which is
the ‘beat’ of a poem, that is the distribution within
the line of stressed and unstressed syllables.
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It is measured in feet, with different names
according to the arrangement of syllables. A foot is
a group of two syllables.
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Poetry and sound devices
6. Metre
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Adapted into English, the long syllables became the
stressed syllables, marked with a ‘¯’, and the short syllables
became unstressed syllables, marked with a ‘˘’:
‘And makes’ is a segment, or foot, which
contains an unstressed syllable (˘) and a
stressed syllable (¯).
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Poetry and sound devices
7. Words
Grammatical
words
unstressed
Content
words
stressed
Articles, auxiliaries,
Adjectives, nouns,
conjunctions, prepositions
verbs and adverbs
and pronouns are usually
are usually stressed
unstressed words.
words.
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Poetry and sound devices
8. Types of feet
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unstress-stress
Two types of feet
stress-unstress
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Stressed and unstressed syllables inside a word or a line
can combine into different patterns
the unstress-stress pattern
(˘/¯) is called iamb and it is the
most common foot in English
poetry.
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the stress-unstress pattern
(¯/˘) is called trochee.
Poetry and sound devices
8. Types of feet
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For many centuries the iambic foot, particularly the
iambic pentameter (generally corresponding to ten
syllables), has been the most common metre in
English poetry.
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Example:
Will I / with wine / and was / sails so / convince
(W. Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1)
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Poetry and sound devices
9. Analyse rhythm
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How to analyse rhythm in a poetic text? Here are some
tips that may be useful when you deal with rhythm in
the analysis of a poem:
1. write the stress on the syllables;
2. count the number of syllables in each line;
3. write the slant bars (/) in order to recognise the feet;
4. identify the pattern (iambic or trochaic).
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Poetry and sound devices
10. Sound devices: rhyme
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Poems are said to rhyme when the last word of two
or more lines has the same ending sound:
When in April the sweet showers fall
And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all
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Conventionally, rhyme has often been used to mark the
end of the line (which also makes the poem easier to
memorise). When rhyme is used within the line, it is
called internal rhyme:
Her breath was strang, her hair was lang
(Anonymous ballad, Kemp Owyne)
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Rhymes are identified by the letters of the alphabet.
The pattern they create is called a rhyme scheme.
Poetry and sound devices
11. Blank verse
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A common form based on iambic pentameter is
blank verse.
Blank verse
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lines are unrhymed
The use of blank verse achieves extreme flexibility,
almost giving poetry the quality of everyday speech.
This is why it is often found in Elizabethan drama,
for example in Macbeth by Shakespeare.
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Poetry and sound devices
12. Sound devices: run-on line
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If a line ends in the middle of a phrase and the meaning
break comes in the next line, we call this a run-on line
or use the French word enjambement:
So the company of men led a careless life,
All was well with them: until One began
To encompass evil, an enemy from hell.
(Beowulf)
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Poetry and sound devices
13. Sound devices: end-stopped line
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Lines are usually end-stopped. This is when the
end of a line coincides with a grammatical pause,
usually marked by a punctuation mark.
Poetry and sound devices
14. Sound devices: caesura
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It is a pause, usually in the middle of a line and
usually shown by a punctuation mark.
To be, or not to be: that is the question.
(William Shakespeare, Hamlet)
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Poetry and sound devices
15. Sound devices: assonance
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The repetition of the same vowel sound can ‘colour’
part of a poem with that vowel quality. This device is
called assonance.
He was sad at heart,
Unsettled yet ready, sensing his death.
(Beowulf)
See how the line is permeated with the /e/ sound, which
creates a sense of doom. Beowulf’s mood recalls the
mood of tragic heroes.
Poetry and sound devices
16. Sound devices: alliteration
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The repetition of the same initial consonant sound
in consecutive words or words which are close together,
is called alliteration.
Grendel they called this cruel spirit,
the fell and fen his fastness was,
the march his haunt.
(Beowulf)
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Sometimes the alliteration can come in the middle
or at the end of words too. It can help create the tone of
the poem or affect the regularity of rhythm.
Poetry and sound devices
17. Sound devices: onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia
refers
to a word whose sound illustrates its meaning.
crack
bang
screech
snuffle
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Poetry and sound devices
18. Sound devices: repetition
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Phrases or lines may be repeated in the course of a
poem to create a musical effect. This device is called
repetition and sometimes refrain. Refrains often
come in ballads as in the question repeated at the
beginning of every stanza.
O where ha’ you been, Lord Randal my son?
And where ha’ you been, my handsome young man?
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