Eng 204

Note: Some of the definitions and examples of poetics terms are from Bedford St. Martin’s LitGloss at http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/litgloss/). Additional discussions of elements of poetry can be found at Bedford St. Martin’s “Elements of Poetry” at http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/elements.html.]

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7. Sound Patterns and Techniques

Rhythm refers to the pattern of speaking created by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables.

For more on t the various kinds of rhythms in English, see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_meter.html

Alliteration: Alliteration refers to words beginning with same first letter. It connects the words together and makes the thought more emphatic and memorable, as in this line from “Nothing  Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost:

Dawn goes down to day.

Rhyme: Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds in the concluding syllables in different words, most often at the ends of lines, like "day" and "stay" in these two lines by Robert Frost.

Dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

The rhyme scheme can alternate so that, for instance, every other line rhymes as in the sonnet form:

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometimes declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed;

Rhyme for the sake of rhyme can sound sing-songy and childish. It can also force awkward phrasing and diction, as in the sonnet above. But rhyme used to emphasize the connection between two words or meanings can be an effective poetic device. Rhyme can also make phrasing and sayings more memorable and add emphasis to rhythm.

Onomatopoeia: Onomatopoeia refers to words that vaguely imitate the sounds they refer to, like buzz, hiss, baa, moo, meow, rattle, bang, and sizzle.

Two other sound techniques, less obvious than rhyme, alliteration and onomatopoeia are assonance (the repetition of a vowel sounds in words, for example,"asleep under a tree") and consonance (identical consonant sounds at the end of words, for example, home, same; or worth, breath) See the Bedford glossary for more on these two sound patterns (http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/litgloss/).

For more on sound patterns, see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_sound.html.

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Excerise 7.1—Sound Patterns: Identify rhymes and alliteration in “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. What words do the rhymes connect in this poem and why?  What words does the alliteration connect and why?

Glory be to God for dappled things—

    For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

        For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

    Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;   

        And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

    Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

        With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

                                                Praise him.

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Unit 1: Table of Contents-Elements of Poetry