Elements of Poetry: Sound Devices 8th Grade English/Language Arts – Poetry Unit: Sound Devices - Blume

Take Cornell Notes. Title is POETRY: SOUND DEVICES Your Name Today’s Date Blume ELA8 Period Write words to be defined and types of poetic sound devices here. Write definitions, explanations, and some examples here. (For these notes, you do not need to use a summary space, as you see here.)

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!)

Alliteration examples

“Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers…” - from “Three Days to See” by Helen Keller Alliteration examples

Assonance A repetition of vowel sounds within words or syllables. This one is usually NOT on the CST Test, but why not know it?! 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.

“I made my way to the lake.” Assonance examples Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. So old it is that no man knows how and why the first poems came. --Carl Sandburg, Early Moon “…on a proud round cloud in white high night…” - E. E. Cummings “I made my way to the lake.”

He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Assonance example The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Repetition Think of all the songs you know where words and lines are repeated – often a lot ! 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!

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.

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”.

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;

This may seem confusing, but it isn’t. Really! Rhyme Scheme 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. a.k.a = “also known as” This may seem confusing, but it isn’t. Really!

Rhyme Scheme continued… Examples: Twinkle, twinkle little star a How I wonder what you are. a Up above the earth so high, b Like a diamond in the sky. b Baa, baa, black sheep a Have you any wool? b Yes sir, yes sir, c Three bags full. 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. 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. a His house is in the village though; a He will not see me stopping here b To watch his woods fill up with snow. a

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Onomatopoeia Review... Onomatopoeia is also considered a “poetic sound device”. 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!