Analyzing the Sound of Poetry
As you know, a poem is not the same as a short story or a novel. One big difference is that poetry plays with the sounds of words. Different techniques create different sounds. When you read a poem, listen for these kinds of sounds.
Alliteration is using the same beginning consonant sound. |
The burrow delves down dark and deep Where slinking creatures go to sleep. |
Assonance is repeating vowel sounds within words. |
In a yellow casserole A green bean makes a scene. |
Onomatopoeia occurs when a word sounds like what it describes. |
The ladle dripped atop my roll And splashed the soup inside my bowl. |
Repetition is using a word or phrase again to draw attention to it or to create rhythm. |
The white dove in the white snow Waits for the white-out winds to go. |
Rhyme refers to repeating the end sounds of words, often at the end of lines. |
If you would show some gratitude Instead of so much attitude, You wouldn’t hear a platitude About your lack of manners, dude. |
Rhythm refers to creating a pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds in a line of poetry. |
If you would show some gratitude Instead of so much attitude, You wouldn’t hear a platitude About your lack of manners, dude. |
Closely read a poem.
Read the following wintry poem, focusing on the sounds it creates.
Winter Time
Robert Lewis Stevenson
Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.
Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.
Close by the jolly fire I sit,
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.
When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap,
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.
Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding-cake.
Analyze poetry sounds.
Write down examples of each type of sound from "Winter Time" by Robert Lewis Stevenson. (Sample answers are provided for each.)
- Alliteration
“Late lies”, “frosty, fiery”
- Assonance
“red/sets”
- Rhyme
“bed/head”, “then/again”
- Rhythm (underline stressed syllables)
And tree and house, and hill and lake, And tree and house, and hill and lake,Are frosted like a wedding-cake.Are frosted like a wedding-cake.