How Do the Sounds of Poetry Convey Tone and Meaning? Feature Menu Introduction Tone: It’s an Attitude Rhythm Rhyme Other Sound Effects Your Turn

How Do the Sounds of Poetry Convey Tone and Meaning? What makes it so easy to remember the hundreds of lyrics to your favorite songs? It’s the rhythm, the beat, the way the words flow. It’s powerful words arranged in the best order. It’s the strongest line—repeated for emphasis. Poets, like songwriters, use rhythm, rhyme, and repetition to convey meaning and tone. 2

Tone: It’s an Attitude Tone is the speaker’s attitude toward his or her subject or audience: playful or serious, joyous or sad, mournful or humorous. Tone is created by many verbal elements, including sounds and word choice. To understand a poem’s meaning, you must first catch its tone.

Rhythm Rhythm is the musical quality produced by repeated sound patterns. All language has rhythm, but rhythm is especially important in poetry.

Rhythm: Meter The most obvious kind of rhythm is a regular pattern or beat called meter. Meter is the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in the words poets put together. There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales That would make your blood run cold. . . . from “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert W. Service Can you hear the beat in the lines above? 5

Rhythm: Meter If a poet decides to write lines with a regular beat, the lines will usually be of the same length and have the same number of syllables. Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats . . . How many syllables are in each line above? 6

Rhythm: Scanning Scanning is a way of marking a poem’s meter. Scanning a poem is easier than you might think: Read each line of the poem aloud. Mark each stressed syllable with the symbol ’. Mark each unstressed syllable with the symbol ˘. “Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats . . .” ˘ ’ “Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats. . . .” ’ “Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats. . . .” 7

Rhythm: Scanning Read these scanned lines aloud, and listen for the beat: Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats . . .” ˘ ’ 8

Rhyme Words rhyme when they end with the same vowel or vowel-consonant sound. dove love winter splinter Rhyme can emphasize the tone of a poem—for example, the poem’s seriousness or humor help convey the poem’s meaning

Rhyme Rhymes are based on the sound, not the spelling, of words. Rhyming Words Non-rhyming Words gruff, tough ice, police trees, breeze try, pantry run, son dew, sew sew, toe hour, your 10

Rhyme Rhyme is often very simple: moth / cloth Other rhyming words are more complicated: antelope / cantaloupe Sometimes more than one word is needed to complete half of a rhyming pair. “Ah,” says Zookeeper Jones—at seeing his clock a’ two— “already again we need to feed that loudmouthed cockatoo.” 11

Rhyme: End Rhyme Most rhymes are end rhymes: The last word in one line is paired with the last word in another line. What are the end rhymes in these lines? Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrim’s pride From ev’ry mountainside, 12

Rhyme: Internal Rhyme Sometimes the last word in one line will be echoed by a word at the beginning or in the middle of the next line. My country ’tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing; This is called internal rhyme. 13

Rhyme: Rhyme Scheme The pattern of rhyming sounds at the ends of lines in a poem is the rhyme scheme. To mark the rhyme scheme, use the same letter to identify each word with the same rhyme. My country ’tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing; Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrim’s pride From ev’ry mountain side, Let freedom ring. a a b c c c b 14

A poet might also decide not to use a regular meter or rhyme scheme. Rhyme: Free Verse A poet might also decide not to use a regular meter or rhyme scheme. Poems made up of loose groupings of words and phrases are called free verse. The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering. I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. from Song of Myself by Walt Whitman [End of Section]

Other Sound Effects: Repetition and Refrain Rhythm and rhyme are forms of repetition. Ending sounds repeat to create rhymes. Beats repeat to create rhythm. Sometimes a poet may also use a refrain—the repetition of a word, phrase, line, or group of lines. A refrain can emphasize a key idea and help create rhythm.

Other Sound Effects: Alliteration Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close together. Alliteration often occurs at the beginning of a word. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Sometimes it is also within or at the end of a word. Can you hear all the /s/ and /sh/ sounds in this tongue twister? She sells seashells by the seashore. [End of Section]

How Do the Sounds of Poetry Convey Tone and Meaning? Quick Check 1. Is this poem rhymed or unrhymed? The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. —Alfred, Lord Tennyson 2. Does the poem have end rhymes? 3. Does the poem have internal rhymes?

How Do the Sounds of Poetry Convey Tone and Meaning? Quick Check 1. Is this poem rhymed or unrhymed? The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. —Alfred, Lord Tennyson This poem is rhymed.

How Do the Sounds of Poetry Convey Tone and Meaning? Quick Check 2. Does the poem have end rhymes? The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. —Alfred, Lord Tennyson Yes, the poem has end rhymes.

How Do the Sounds of Poetry Convey Tone and Meaning? Quick Check 3. Does the poem have internal rhymes? The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. —Alfred, Lord Tennyson No, the poem does not have any internal rhymes.

How Do the Sounds of Poetry Convey Tone and Meaning? Quick Check 4. Find two examples of alliteration in the poem. The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. —Alfred, Lord Tennyson 5. Does this poem have a regular meter, or is it more like conversation?

How Do the Sounds of Poetry Convey Tone and Meaning? Quick Check 4. Find two examples of alliteration in the poem. The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. —Alfred, Lord Tennyson The poet repeats /c/ and /l/ sounds. Other consonant sounds, such as /h/ and /w/, are repeated, too. Can you find them?

How Do the Sounds of Poetry Convey Tone and Meaning? Quick Check 5. Does this poem have a regular meter, or is it more like conversation? The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. —Alfred, Lord Tennyson This poem has a regular meter.

How Do the Sounds of Poetry Convey Tone and Meaning? Quick Check 6. Give two reasons this poem is not free verse. The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. —Alfred, Lord Tennyson

How Do the Sounds of Poetry Convey Tone and Meaning? Quick Check 6. Give two reasons this poem is not free verse. The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. —Alfred, Lord Tennyson This poem has end rhymes and a regular beat, or meter.

Analyze Sounds, Tone, and Meaning Your Turn Tone may be humorous, sarcastic, sad, joyful, playful, and so on. Choose a favorite song. First, explain what the song means—what is its message? Next, identify the way the songwriter uses sound effects. Finally, describe the tone of the song. How do the sounds of the song reinforce its tone and meaning? [End of Section] 27

The End