What Do You Need to Know About Poetry?
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Sounds of Poetry
Word Choice
Rhythm
Rhyme
Repetition
Onomatopoeia
Sounds of Poetry
A song’s lyrics need music to bring them to life.
Poetry is different: Poets use words to create
music.
Listen to the
beginning of Samuel
Taylor Coleridge’s
poem “Kubla Khan.”
Which lines or phrases seem particularly musical?
Sounds of Poetry
Poets create music through the written word in
several ways:
word choice
repetition
onomatopoeia
rhythm
Sounds of Poetry
Word Choice
One way poets create music in their poems is
through the words they choose.
stroll
pace
walk
Think about the different sounds these word
choices make.
[End of Section]
Sounds of Poetry
Rhythm
Rhythm, the repetition of stressed and unstressed
syllables, provides the poem’s beat.
Like many other
languages, English is
accented, which means
that certain syllables get a
stronger beat than others.
Sounds of Poetry
Rhythm
Saying words aloud can help you hear the natural
beats in words.
’
˘
FRIEND-ship
˘
’
˘
ex-CITE-ment
Stressed syllables are marked ′ , and unstressed
syllables are marked ˘.
Sounds of Poetry
Rhythm
A poem’s beat comes from the patterns made by
the stressed and unstressed syllables.
Read the following limerick aloud and listen to its
beat.
A gentleman dining at Crewe
Found quite a large mouse in his stew
Said the waiter, “Don’t shout,
And wave it about,
Or the rest will be wanting one, too!”
Sounds of Poetry
Rhythm
To see the beats in a poem, mark the syllables as
stressed or unstressed.
˘
’ ˘ ˘ dining
’ ˘˘
’
A gentleman
at Crewe
˘ quite
’ ˘
˘ mouse
’ ˘in his
˘ stew
’
Found
a large
’ the
˘ waiter,
’ ˘ “Don’t
’ shout,
’
Said
˘ wave
’ it˘˘
’
And
about,
˘ the
˘ rest
’ will
˘ be
˘ wanting
’ ˘ one,
˘ too!”
’
Or
A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables is
called meter.
Sounds of Poetry
Rhyme
When words sound the same at the end, they
rhyme. The chiming effect of rhyme adds to the
music of a poem.
wraps
prince
wince
scraps
Sounds of Poetry
Rhyme
Most rhymes in poetry are end rhymes. The
rhymes appear at the end of the lines.
Read, then listen to, the following lines from
Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Identify the end
rhymes.
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town tonight,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light—”
a
b
a
b
Sounds of Poetry
Rhyme
When a line rhymes with the one immediately before
it, that pair of lines is called a couplet.
Identify the couplets in this excerpt from the poem
“Blueberries” by Robert Frost.
"You know where they cut off the woods—let me see—
It was two years ago—or no!—can it be
No longer than that?—and the following fall
The fire ran and burned it all up but the wall."
"Why, there hasn't been time for the bushes to grow.
That's always the way with the blueberries, though:
a
a
b
b
c
c
Sounds of Poetry
Rhyme
Rhymes can also occur within lines; these are
called internal rhymes.
Read, then listen to, these lines from Edgar Allan
Poe’s “The Raven.” Identify the internal rhymes.
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there
came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping—rapping at my
chamber door.
Sounds of Poetry
Rhyme
Many modern poets prefer approximate rhymes,
sounds that are similar but not exactly the same.
arm
miss
whisk
calm
Approximate rhymes are also called near rhymes,
off rhymes, imperfect rhymes, or slant rhymes.
Sounds of Poetry
Rhyme
Some people think approximate rhymes sound
less artificial than exact rhymes, more like
everyday speech.
Some poets use approximate
rhymes because they feel that all
the good exact rhymes have
already been used too many times.
Sounds of Poetry
Rhyme
Read, then listen to, the following lines from
“Maiden-Savin’ Sam.” Identify the approximate
rhymes.
Sam, Sam, Maiden-Savin’ Sam,
Greatest maiden saver in all of the land
Saved all the short ones, all the tall ones, too
With his hat on his head and spurs on his shoes.
Although neither pair
rhymes exactly, Sam and
land sound similar, as do too
and shoes.
Sounds of Poetry
Repetition
Poets also make music in their poems by using
repetition, using the same words, sounds, or
images more than once.
Give me the splendid silent sun with all his
beams full-dazzling,
Give me juicy autumnal fruit ripe and red
from the orchard,
Give me a field where the unmowed grass grows,
Give me an arbor, give me the trellised grape . . .
How does Walt Whitman
create rhythm in “Give Me
the Splendid Silent Sun”?
Sounds of Poetry
Repetition
Whitman creates rhythm in his poem by repeating
sentence patterns.
Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams
full-dazzling,
Give me juicy autumnal fruit ripe and red from the
orchard,
Give me a field where the unmowed grass grows,
Give me an arbor, give me the trellised grape . . .
The repetition of “Give me” creates a sound
pattern.
Sounds of Poetry
Repetition
In the same way that poets repeat words, they
also repeat sounds.
The repetition of the same consonant sound in
several words that are close together is called
alliteration.
snake
snack
Sounds of Poetry
Repetition
Listen for the alliteration in this line from Poe’s
“The Raven.”
And the silken, sad,
sad, uncertain
uncertain
rustling of each purple curtain
Do you hear the
rustling of a curtain in
all those s sounds?
Sounds of Poetry
Repetition
Repeated vowel sounds are called assonance.
wrap
cash
Listen to these lines from Billy
Collins’s “Introduction to Poetry.”
Notice the long i sounds.
[End of Section]
Sounds of Poetry
Onomatopoeia
Poets also may use onomatopoeia, which is the
use of words with sounds that imitate or suggest
their meaning.
quack
screech
Onomatopoeia helps poets bring sound and sense
together.
Sounds of Poetry
Onomatopoeia
Using your knowledge of onomatopoeia, try to
label the photographs below. The first one has
been done for you.
rustle
slurp
sizzle
thump
or bang