Sound and Meaning in Poetry
Today we are going to do some exercises designed to teach you the following bit about poetry (cited in
Chapter 13 of your AP Literature book): “The peculiar function of poetry as distinguished from music … is
to convey not sounds but meaning or experience through sounds. In first-rate poetry sound exists not
for its own sake nor for mere decoration, but to enhance the meaning. Its function is to support the
leading player, not to steal the scene.”
Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Bells” is certainly a poem that makes use of sound to enhance its meaning.
For several years, Poe lived in the Bronx in New York City, just a few blocks from Old St. John’s Church
on the Fordham University campus. The church is a gothic cathedral with a bell tower. The bell, a
possible inspiration for Poe’s poem, is now referred to as Old Edgar Allan. (Side note: Poe wrote the
poem one year after his wife’s death.) Let’s listen to a reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Bells” from
YouTube. As you listen, think about how sound enhances meaning in the poem. Write your general
impression of each section of the poem to the right of the text.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_gfTVClku4&feature=related
I
Hear the sledges with the bells Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
II
Hear the mellow wedding bells Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight! From the molten - golden notes,
And all in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle - dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! - how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
III
Hear the loud alarum bells Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor
Now - now to sit, or never,
By the side of the pale - faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear, it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows;
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells Of the bells Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells In the clamor and the clanging of the bells!
IV
Hear the tolling of the bells Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people - ah, the people They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone,
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone They are neither man nor woman They are neither brute nor human They are Ghouls: And their king it is who tolls: And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells: Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells Of the bells, bells, bells: To the sobbing of the bells: Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells Of the bells, bells, bells To the tolling of the bells Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells, To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.
Four Ways a Poet May Reinforce Meaning through Sound
Refer to Ch. 13 in your AP Literature book…
1. First, poets can _________________________________________________________________.
List the 2 categories below:
a.
b.
Using information on pp. 942-43, create a “phonetic intensive” chart below:
Sound
Idea Conveyed by Sound
Examples
Initial fl-
Initial gl-
Initial sl-
Initial st-
Short -i-
Long -o- or -oo-
Final -are
Medial -att-
Final -er and -le
Mark examples of phonetic intensives in the following poem by A.E. Housman and make notes about
how sound enhances meaning:
“Eight O’Clock”
He stood, and heard the steeple
Sprinkle the quarters on the morning town.
One, two, three, four, to market place and people
It tossed them down.
Strapped, noosed, nighing his hour,
He stood and counted them and cursed his luck;
And then the clock collected in the tower
Its strength, and struck.
2. A second and far more important way that the poet can reinforce meaning through sound is to
_____________________________________________________________________________.
Make notes in the chart below about the effects of the following sounds:
Sound
Effect
Vowels
Consonants
“Long” Vowels vs. “Short” Vowels
“Liquid” Consonants
“Plosive” Consonants
Using the four questions on p. 945 as a guide, annotate the following poem by Alexander Pope:
“Sound and Sense”
True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offense,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense:
Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar;
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labors, and the words move slow;
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Hear how Timotheus' varied lays surprise,
And bid alternate passions fall and rise!
3. As the excerpt from Alexander Pope also demonstrates, a third way in which a poet can
reinforce meaning through sound is by
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Make notes in the chart below about how sound enhances meaning:
Sound
Unaccented vs. accented syllables
Triple meter vs. duple meter
Substitute feet (see definition of substitution
on your poetry terms list)
Effect
Two or more unaccented syllables
Two or more accented syllables
Long vs. short vowels
Grammatical and rhetorical pauses
Copy the scanned excerpt on p. 946 from Tennyson’s “Ulysses” below and make notes about
how it incorporates elements from the chart above:
4. A fourth way for a poet to fit sound to sense is to
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________.
Annotate the following poem by Odgen Nash, making note of how it accomplishes this fourth
method:
“The Turtle”
The turtle lives 'twixt plated decks
Which practically conceal its sex.
I think it clever of the turtle
In such a fix to be so fertile.
After annotating it, read the commentary on the poem on pp. 900-01