Sound & Imagery

Sound:

Words are divided into segments (like cadence groups, but of individual sounds)
Ex:
Top (has 3 segments)
Graph (has 4 segments)

Sometimes it takes more than one letter to make a segment. Ph-o-ne (the 'ph' make an "f" sound, for example)

Segments are divided into vowel sounds and consonant sounds (including semivowels).

Vowel sounds: a, e, I, o, u, and sometimes y and w.
All other are consonant sounds.
Consonants come in 3 types:

1. Stop sounds (p, b, t, d, k, g)
2. Continuant sounds (produced by the steady release of the breath and position of the tongue) (n, ng, l, r, th, s, z, sh, zh)
3. Semivowels (f, h, j, l, m, n, r, s, v, w, x, y, z)

There is often a difference between the spelling or graphic of the word and the phonetics (or sound) the word makes.

Euphony & Cacophony

Euphony (good sound) refers to words containing consonants that permit an easy and pleasant flow of spoken sound.
“Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind” is euphonious.
Cacophony (bad sound) the words do not flow smoothly but rather bump or clash against each other harshly and jarringly.
“Selfish shellfish” “Toy boat” “Red leather”, “the bare black cliff clang’d round him.”

Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, Onomatopoeia and rhyme are all effects of sound. These definitions can be found in your chapter on Sound by Mary Oliver.

Scholarly Advice

1. Examine poems for sound elements.
2. Look for patterns.
3. Isolate the most significant and effective instances of prosody.
4. Think about how prosody is effecting the subject matter or content of the poem.
5. Explain this connection.

Prosody is the study of sound and word choice in poetry.

Poems originally emerged from songs and music. Lyric poetry, for example, started as a "poem" spoken with the beautiful plucking of a 3-stringed harp called a lyre.

• We hear poetry sung or spoken daily when we listen to the radio or to our favorite band.
• Poems often have a distinct rhythm or pattern to their rhythm.
• The rhythm of poetry includes: beat, meter, scansion

Rhythm (also called beat, metrics, versification, etc.) is the comparative speed and loudness in the flow of words spoken in poetic lines.

Words in poetry are selected, not just for content, but also sound or “musicality” of a line.
Placement in a line is also important. Words that start and end a line have more stress.

Large units of words make up sentences and paragraphs in prose; smaller units make up phrases or cadence groups in poetry. In poetry this is what we call metrical feet.

Words are not read in isolation, but in small groups (cadence groups). Think about how cadence groups work in your own poetry.

Ex. When lilacs last// in the dooryard bloom’d
And the great star// early droop’d
In the western sky// in the night.

Let's look at the following links. For each, try to notice sound imagery, rhythm and cadence. On your index card, please identify some of the sound devices you noticed working in these poems. Turn in your index card for participation credit at the end of class today.

Poems to listen to:

• Wallace Stevens: The Emperor of Ice Cream
• Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Windhover
• Mary Oliver: The Summer Day
• Mary Oliver: Wild Geese
• Robert Frost: Poems
• Robert Frost: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
• Edgar Allan Poe: Annabel Lee
• Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven
• Edgar Allan Poe: The Bells

LAB: Write up any poem drafts from your "field trips"!

Also: Writing activity: Compose another first draft of a new poem where you use specific sound devices. Call this draft one. The assignment is SOUND.

Having trouble getting started? Try one of these brainstorms in your journal.

• Choose a letter from the alphabet. List associated words that begin with this letter. Don't try to make sense, but trust your instincts. Rearrange the list into a tongue twister. Write as many tongue twisters in your journal as you need to. Share your tongue twister with a friend.
• Choose a letter from the alphabet. List associated words that do NOT begin with this letter, but that the letter is present in the body of the word. Ex. little, brittle, shuttle all have "tt" in the word, creating consonance. Write a tongue twister by combining consonance, assonance AND alliteration.
• Make a list of rhyming words. Write a song or sappy greeting card poem with the words.
• With a partner try the following to create new words: WRITER ONE starts by whispering or saying the prefix or first part of a word. WRITER TWO finishes the word by naming the root or suffix of the proposed sound. Ex. Writer One: Shh; Writer Two: Uut. The word together: shut. Record a few of these in your notebook/journal.
• Make two columns in your journal. In one column list common nouns or adjectives: ex. house, rock, green. On the next column, write a different word that means the same thing: ex. hut, stone, beryl. Note how the different word has a different sound and therefore feeling to it.
• The _____ goes: (insert sound here). We all know a cat goes meow, but what does a pine tree sound like? How about a fence? or a goldfish? Being poetic, play around with the sound of inanimate objects and animals that are not traditionally found on a speak-n-spell. Ex. The rollerskate goes shkurrrr. Make a list of these onomatopoeia. 

Once you have brainstormed and engaged in prewriting a bit, select a topic or subject. Write about this subject using poetic sound devices. Create a draft. You may find it easier to write what you want to say first, then replace words on purpose to create alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme, onomatopoeia, etc. Good luck!

Turn in drafts by the end of the week to your portfolio.

More sound poems (these by Dr. Seuss...have fun):

• Tweedle Beetle Battle by Dr. Seuss
• Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss
• Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You by Dr. Seuss
• And because it's good for you: the Lorax

Now you know all about onomatopoeia, assonance, consonance, alliteration, and rhyme (usually referred to as end rhyme). But there is also slant rhyme (near rhyme), internal rhyme, meter, rhythm, repetition, and caesura that creates sound imagery in a poem. Related to this are the literary terms: tone, voice, syntax, depitation, euphemism, understatement, sarcasm, and diction. We will discuss these less obvious techniques in future classes.

HOMEWORK: Read "The Line" by Mary Oliver. Write. Study your vocabulary words. Prepare for a test on Imagery, Sound, and Line.