Post by ernesto thaddeus m. solmerano on Jun 15, 2007 6:46:00 GMT -5
SOUND-EFFECT DEVICES
The poet, unlike the person who uses language to convey only information, chooses words for sound as well as for meaning, and uses the sound as a means of reinforcing meaning. Sound-effect devices or verbal music is one of the important resources that enable the poet to do something more than communicate mere information. The poet may indeed sometimes pursue verbal music for its own sake; more often, at least in first-rate poetry, it is adjunct to the total meaning or communication of the poem.
KINDS OF SOUND–EFFECT DEVICES
There are lots of techniques poets use to make a poem sound good. Here we'll focus on just 10 of the most common sound-effect devices.
Alliteration. The repetition of the initial consonant sounds of stressed syllables in neighboring words or at short intervals within a line or passage.
She sells seashells by the sea-shore.
Greedy goats gobbled up gooseberries, getting good at grabbing the goodies.
Anaphora. A rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.
"I Bring Thee Great Wealth, Georgianna"
By Guillermo Castillo
I bring thee great wealth, Georgianna
I bring these to thee:
I bring thee a bird, Georgianna
A bird I bring thee;
I bring thee a rose, Georgianna
A rose I bring thee;
I bring thee my love, Georgianna
My love, all for thee;
Please give me your love, Georgianna
Please come live with me.
(I love you, go away, (said Georgianna.
I bring you a car, Georgianna
Hop in, drive with me;
Got plenty money, Georgianna...
(Yes yes! Let me see...
(I'm yours, let's away! (cried Georgianna.
Assonance. The repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences. It is the repetition of internal vowel sounds to set the mood or add to the meaning of the word
From William Wordsworth’s “Daffodils”
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o‘er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze…
Cacophony. The juxtaposition of words producing a harsh sound
From Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky"
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!
Consonance. The repetition of consonant sounds, most commonly within a short passage of verse.
Crabs, crickets, and crocodiles are creepy creatures.
Euphony. The juxtaposition of words producing a pleasant sound. It is a term used to refer to a word or phrase that is pleasing in sound, specifically one that includes consonants and vowels that work well together.
"Success is Counted Sweetest"
By Emily Dickinson
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple host
Who took the flag to-day
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory,
As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and clear!
Onomatopoeia. The formation or use of words that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes
“Running Water”
by Lee Emmett
water plops into pond
splish-splash downhill
warbling magpies in tree
trilling, melodic thrill
whoosh, passing breeze
flags flutter and flap
frog croaks, bird whistles
babbling bubbles from tap
Repetition. The repeated usage of words or group of words in the same sentence to create a poetic or rhythmic effect
“Love Story”
by Conrado S. Ramirez
I walked last summer into the barrio of Niyugan.
A pretty girl was singing at a lighted door;
Now a woman sits weeping at my darkened window:
I walked last summer into the barrio of Niyugan…
Rhyme. A type of echoing which utilizes a correspondence of sound in the final accented vowels and all that follows of two or more words, but the preceding consonant sounds must differ.
From Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
Rhythm. A literary device that displays long and short patterns through stressed and unstressed syllables, especially in verse form.
Types of Rhythm
English poetry makes use of five important rhythms. These rhythms are of different patterns of stressed (/) and unstressed (x) syllables. Each unit of these types is called foot. Here are the five types of rhythm according to literarydevices.net:
1. Iamb (x /)
This is the most commonly used. It consists of two syllables. The first syllable is not stressed while the second syllable is stressed. Such as “compare” in
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
2. Trochee (/ x)
A trochee is type of poetic foot which is usually used in English poetry. It has two syllables. The first syllable is strongly stressed while the second syllable is unstressed, as given below.
“Tell me not, in mournful numbers”
(Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
3. Spondee (/ /)
Spondee is a poetic foot which has two syllables that are consecutively stressed. For example:
“White founts falling in the Courts of the sun”
(Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton)
4. Dactyl (/ x x)
Dactyl is made up of three syllables. The first syllable is stressed and the remaining two syllables are not stressed such as the word “marvelous”. For example:
“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,”
(Evangeline by Longfellow)
The words “primeval” and “murmuring” show dactyls in this line.
5. Anapest (x x /)
Anapests are totally opposites of the dactyls. They have three syllables; where the first two syllables are not stressed while the last syllable is stressed. For example:
“Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,”
The poet, unlike the person who uses language to convey only information, chooses words for sound as well as for meaning, and uses the sound as a means of reinforcing meaning. Sound-effect devices or verbal music is one of the important resources that enable the poet to do something more than communicate mere information. The poet may indeed sometimes pursue verbal music for its own sake; more often, at least in first-rate poetry, it is adjunct to the total meaning or communication of the poem.
KINDS OF SOUND–EFFECT DEVICES
There are lots of techniques poets use to make a poem sound good. Here we'll focus on just 10 of the most common sound-effect devices.
Alliteration. The repetition of the initial consonant sounds of stressed syllables in neighboring words or at short intervals within a line or passage.
She sells seashells by the sea-shore.
Greedy goats gobbled up gooseberries, getting good at grabbing the goodies.
Anaphora. A rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.
"I Bring Thee Great Wealth, Georgianna"
By Guillermo Castillo
I bring thee great wealth, Georgianna
I bring these to thee:
I bring thee a bird, Georgianna
A bird I bring thee;
I bring thee a rose, Georgianna
A rose I bring thee;
I bring thee my love, Georgianna
My love, all for thee;
Please give me your love, Georgianna
Please come live with me.
(I love you, go away, (said Georgianna.
I bring you a car, Georgianna
Hop in, drive with me;
Got plenty money, Georgianna...
(Yes yes! Let me see...
(I'm yours, let's away! (cried Georgianna.
Assonance. The repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences. It is the repetition of internal vowel sounds to set the mood or add to the meaning of the word
From William Wordsworth’s “Daffodils”
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o‘er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze…
Cacophony. The juxtaposition of words producing a harsh sound
From Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky"
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!
Consonance. The repetition of consonant sounds, most commonly within a short passage of verse.
Crabs, crickets, and crocodiles are creepy creatures.
Euphony. The juxtaposition of words producing a pleasant sound. It is a term used to refer to a word or phrase that is pleasing in sound, specifically one that includes consonants and vowels that work well together.
"Success is Counted Sweetest"
By Emily Dickinson
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple host
Who took the flag to-day
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory,
As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and clear!
Onomatopoeia. The formation or use of words that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes
“Running Water”
by Lee Emmett
water plops into pond
splish-splash downhill
warbling magpies in tree
trilling, melodic thrill
whoosh, passing breeze
flags flutter and flap
frog croaks, bird whistles
babbling bubbles from tap
Repetition. The repeated usage of words or group of words in the same sentence to create a poetic or rhythmic effect
“Love Story”
by Conrado S. Ramirez
I walked last summer into the barrio of Niyugan.
A pretty girl was singing at a lighted door;
Now a woman sits weeping at my darkened window:
I walked last summer into the barrio of Niyugan…
Rhyme. A type of echoing which utilizes a correspondence of sound in the final accented vowels and all that follows of two or more words, but the preceding consonant sounds must differ.
From Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
Rhythm. A literary device that displays long and short patterns through stressed and unstressed syllables, especially in verse form.
Types of Rhythm
English poetry makes use of five important rhythms. These rhythms are of different patterns of stressed (/) and unstressed (x) syllables. Each unit of these types is called foot. Here are the five types of rhythm according to literarydevices.net:
1. Iamb (x /)
This is the most commonly used. It consists of two syllables. The first syllable is not stressed while the second syllable is stressed. Such as “compare” in
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
2. Trochee (/ x)
A trochee is type of poetic foot which is usually used in English poetry. It has two syllables. The first syllable is strongly stressed while the second syllable is unstressed, as given below.
“Tell me not, in mournful numbers”
(Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
3. Spondee (/ /)
Spondee is a poetic foot which has two syllables that are consecutively stressed. For example:
“White founts falling in the Courts of the sun”
(Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton)
4. Dactyl (/ x x)
Dactyl is made up of three syllables. The first syllable is stressed and the remaining two syllables are not stressed such as the word “marvelous”. For example:
“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,”
(Evangeline by Longfellow)
The words “primeval” and “murmuring” show dactyls in this line.
5. Anapest (x x /)
Anapests are totally opposites of the dactyls. They have three syllables; where the first two syllables are not stressed while the last syllable is stressed. For example:
“Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,”