1
Describing Sound: Some Terms
a. blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter
example:
Go, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments.
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth.
Turn melancholy forth to funerals-The pale companion is not for our pomp.
(MSND I, i, 11-15)
b. iambic pentameter: metrical line of five iambic feet (ten syllables)
example (syllables separated by slashes):
Four/ days/ will/ quick/ly/ steep/ them/selves/ in/ night
1
2
3
4 5
6
7
8
9
10
c. iamb: a metrical foot made up of an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable (the
natural stress pattern of English)
examples (stressed syllable is in caps):
be/CAUSE
a/WAKE
re/TURN
de/NY
|a/GAINST| |my/ CHILD| |my/ DAUGH| |ter/ HER| |mi/A|
d. stressed syllable: a syllable that is spoken with relatively more force than the
syllables next to it
e. end-stopped lines: those in which the sense of the line forms a complete unit (usually
marked by some form of punctuation). Read with a slight pause to mark the
punctuation.
(see the example in item a above)
f. enjambed line: one in which the sense of the line continues on into the next line (read
without pauses at the end of lines)
example:
Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in
Another moon--but O, methinks how slow
This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires
Like to a stepdame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man’s revenue.
(MSND I, i, 1-6)
g. trochee: a metrical foot made up of a stressed followed by an unstressed syllable
examples:
THORN/y
HEDGE/hog
RU/bies
|IN/ their| |GOLD/ coats| |SPOTS/ you| SEE
FAIR/y
2
h. couplet: two lines with similar end-rhymes. The sound at the end of the lines links
the rhyming lines together in a tight unit. Produces a linear effect.
example:
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows
i. alternating rhyme: every other line rhymes. Again, rhyme links units together, but in
such cases the links are further apart, creating a less direct effect than that of the couplet.
example:
The ousel cock so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill;
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill.
j. alliteration: repetition of sounds. Assonance is a type of alliteration in which vowels
are repeated (sometimes vowels of similar sound quality rather than identity--in the first
line of the example directly above, “ousel,” “cock,” “so,” “of,” and “hue” are all low,
open sounds; the lines in the example below show the same kind of assonance).
Consonance is alliteration of consonant sounds. Alliteration may be initial (at the
beginning of words), medial (in the middle), or final--or any combination of these three.
examples:
The fold stands empty in the drownèd field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud.
In this example, we see dome clear-cut initial alliteration (consonance): the “f’”s in the
first two lines: “fold,” “field,” “fatted,” “flock.” The “m” in “murrain” is picked up in
the next line’s “men’s,” “morris,” and “mud.” Further, the first line shows the ways that
final alliteration can work: the “d’” s in “fold,” “stands,” “drowned,” and “field.”
The passage also exhibits some medial alliteration--the “l’”s of “fold,” “field,” “flock”
(clearly embedded in the “f” complex of sounds) are picked up in “filled.”
Noticing these sounds helps us think about the ways that sound contributes to meaning.
The f-sound, for example, with its puff of air, suggests a kind of exhaustion of resources;
the hollow sound of the o’s and u’s makes this passage sound empty and despairing; the
liquid l’s and m’s are also melancholy-sounding, sounds that seem to stretch out and
lengthen the lines, contributing again to a sort of hollowness.