1. Sound Devices in Poetry
How Poets use Sound to Create Meaning

2. RHYME
Rhyme: repetition of vowel sounds and any sounds which follow: make, take
Approximate rhyme: repeat some sounds but are not exact: grave, have
Exact rhyme: make, take
End rhyme: occurs at the ends of lines
Internal rhyme: occurs within lines

3. Rhyme Scheme Rhyme scheme = the pattern of rhyming words in a poem
There's a patch of old snow in a corner(A)
That I should have guessed (B)
Was a blow-away paper the rain (C)
Had brought to rest. (B)
DO NOT START OVER WITH THE NEXT STANZA.

4. METER Meter = the beat or rhythm of the poem
To determine meter, mark stressed and unstressed syllables
Iamb = one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable (da DUM – be cause)
Trochee = one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable (DUM da – nev er)

5. SCANSION: Determining the meter of a poem is called SCANSION.
To determine the meter: mark stressed and unstressed syllables; count feet
One iamb = one foot
Iambic pentameter = five feet
Because I could not stop to eat today

6. Other Sound Devices: Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds
(a thin splinter of singing)
Alliteration: repetition of beginning consonant sounds (green grass)
Onomatopoeia: when the sound of a word mimics its meaning (bang, tick-tock)
Consonance: repetition of consonant sounds at within words (all mammals named Sam are clammy)

7. Syllabication Syllabication : dividing words into syllables
Monosyllabic: one-syllable words
Dissyllabic : words with two syllables
Polysyllabic: words with four or more syllables

8. Practice: What sound devices do you hear in this poem?
(1) When the leaves in autumn wither,
(2) With a tawny tanned face,
(3) Warped and wrinkled-up together,
(4) The year’s late beauty to disgrace:
(5) There thy life’s glass may’st thou find thee,
(6) Green now, gay now, gone anon:
(7) Leaving (wordling) of thine own,
(8) Neither fruit, nor leaf behind thee.

9. Did you notice these? (1) When the leaves in autumn wither,
(2) With a tawny tanned face,
(3) Warped and wrinkled-up together,
(4) The year’s late beauty to disgrace:
(5) There thy life’s glass may’st thou find thee,
(6) Green now, gay now, gone anon:
(7) Leaving (wordling) of thine own,
(8) Neither fruit, nor leaf behind thee.