Elements of Poetry:
Sound Devices
8th Grade English/Language Arts – Poetry Unit -Ms. Blume
Cornell Notes reminder…
Title is POETRY: SOUND DEVICES
Your Name
Today’s Date
Blume ELA8
Period
Write words to be defined
and types of figurative
language here.
Write definitions,
explanations, and
some examples here.
For these notes, you do not
need to use a summary space,
as you see here.
2
Alliteration
The repetition of initial consonant sounds, in two or more
neighboring words or syllables.
The wild and wooly walrus waits and wonders when we will walk by.
Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees…
-- from Silver by Walter de la Mare
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
(almost ALL tongue twisters!)
3
Assonance
A repetition of vowel sounds within words or syllables.
Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese.
Free and easy.
Make the grade.
The stony walls enclosed the holy space.
4
Repetition
Words or phrases repeated in writings to give emphasis,
rhythm, and/or a sense of urgency.
Example: from Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Bells”
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!
5
Rhythm and Meter

Rhythm is the sound pattern created by stressed
and unstressed syllables.
 The pattern can be regular or random.

Meter is the regular patterns of stresses
found in many poems and songs..

Rhythm is often combined with rhyme,
alliteration, and other poetic devices to add a
musical quality to the writing.
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Rhythm and Meter continued…
Example:
I think that I shall never see a
poem lovely as a tree.
The purple words/syllables are
“stressed”, and they have a regular
pattern, so this poetic line has “meter”.
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Rhyme

The repetition of end sounds in words
End rhymes appear at the end of two
or more lines of poetry.
 Internal rhymes appear within a
single line of poetry.

Ring around the rosies,
A pocket full of posies,
Abednego was meek and mild; he softly spoke, he sweetly smiled.
He never called
his playmates names, and he was good in running games;
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Rhyme Scheme





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The pattern of end rhymes (of lines) in a
poem.
Letters are used to identify a poem’s rhyme
scheme (a.k.a rhyme pattern).
The letter a is placed after the first line and
all lines that rhyme with the first line.
The letter b identifies the next line ending
with a new sound, and all lines that rhyme
with it.
Letters continue to be assigned in sequence
to lines containing new ending sounds.
This may seem confusing, but it isn’t. Really!
Rhyme Scheme continued…
Examples:
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the earth so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Baa, baa, black sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
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a
a
b
b
a
b
c
b
Rhyme Scheme continued…
What is the rhyme scheme of this stanza?
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
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From Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
Did you get it right? aaba
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
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a
a
b
a
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Onomatopoeia
Words that sound like their meaning --the “sound” they describe.
buzz… hiss… roar… meow… woof… rumble…
howl… snap… zip… zap… blip… whack …
crack… crash… flutter… flap… squeak… whirr..
pow… plop… crunch… splash… jingle… rattle…
clickety-clack… bam!
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