4.3 Understanding sound effects in poetry

Learn how to:

• recognise sound techniques

• recognise the effect of sound techniques.

Why is being able to analyse sound effects important?

You may be asked specific questions about a word or phrase which rely on you having understood that it is a sound effect. You may be asked to identify the technique being used or the effect of its use.

Key term sound effect: the rhythms and sounds by which letters within words, whole words and combinations of words create meanings

Revision tip

Create a list of sound effects and learn them by using a mnemonic made from their initial letters. Add examples of each technique.

Building skills

Identifying common sound techniques in poetry

1 Poets use many sound effect techniques. Copy the table below and add more examples.

TechniqueDefinition rhyme Where sounds used in two or more words match, e.g. ‘Only memory will turn down this way/When some old man somewhere recalls his day.’ rhythm Where the length of words, the number of stressed syllables in a word or a line, or the punctuation used creates a regular pattern, e.g. ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ (Wordsworth) has four stressed syllables. onomatopoeia Where a word’s sound reflects the actual sound that it is describing, e.g. the words ‘growled’ and ‘gargled’ from ‘Laventille’ describe the sound of the gutter water. alliteration consonance assonance When words close to each other repeat the same vowel sound, e.g. ‘tin trinkets’, ‘impossible drop’ (Walcott). sibilance

When words close to each other have the same initial letter, e.g. ‘Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens’ (G. M. Hopkins).

When words close to each other repeat the same consonant sound, e.g. ‘whose edges fell as/its Episcopal turkey-buzzards fall’ (Walcott).

When the repetition of ‘s’ sounds in words close together creates a ‘hissing’ effect, e.g. ‘He sipped with his straight mouth/Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body’ (D. H. Lawrence)

Read the following poem and identify any sound effects in it.

The Sea

The sea is a hungry dog, Giant and grey.

He rolls on the beach all day. With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws Hour upon hour he gnaws

The rumbling, tumbling stones, And ‘Bones, bones, bones, bones!’

The giant sea-dog moans, Licking his greasy paws.

And when the night wind roars

And the moon rocks in the stormy cloud, He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs, Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs, And howls and hollos long and loud.

But on quiet days in May or June,

When even the grasses on the dune Play no more their reedy tune, With his head between his paws

He lies on the sandy shores, So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores.

Considering the effect of sound effects in poetry

James Reeves

Remember that writers select words for their impact, sensory appeal and emotion. For example, read aloud the lines from D. H. Lawrence’s ‘Snake’: He sipped with his straight mouth, Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body...

The rhythm of the poem makes the reader read it slowly because of the long second line.

3 What does this suggest about: a) the snake’s movements b) the snake’s own shape or form?

Some of the ways in which sound effects work in these areas in ‘The Sea’ are outlined below.

Impact:

• Repetition of sounds can make the words they are a part of more memorable; for example, rhyme at the end of a line. Think whether any lines from ‘The Sea’ have stuck in your mind because they rhyme.

• Alliteration often increases the volume and pace of our reading, which imprints it on our minds more effectively. Did your chosen lines feature alliteration?

4 Find two examples of alliteration in ‘The Sea’. What do they add?

5 Think of an unusual metaphor to describe a tropical storm. Then write a few lines about it, including alliteration and rhyme.

Sensory appeal:

• Specific sound effects such as onomatopoeic words help transport the reader to the scene. Pick out the onomatopoeic words from the poem.

• Alliteration, consonance and sibilance can each be repeated to create an ongoing sound effect. Think about how ‘howls and hollos’ help to create an ongoing echoing bark.

• Rhythm can create a sense of movement – for example: ‘He rolls on the beach all day / With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws’. Try saying ‘clashing’ and ‘shaggy’ out loud and think about the kind of motion you picture as you say them.

6 Write two lines of a poem that describes the sound of a tropical storm. Use onomatopoeia, rhythm and letter patterns.

Conveying emotion:

• A fast rhythm, using lots of short syllables, can create a sense of energy and perhaps threat.

• Alliteration of ‘hard’ consonants can often create an angry ‘voice’.

• Alliteration of soft consonants can create a sense that someone is sad or subdued.

• Long assonance can create a sad, eerie or relaxed mood.

7 How does the poet use sounds to present the dog in three different ways in the three verses of the poem?

Read this extract from a poem about a very high cliff. It was written at the start of the 19th century, so some of the language is quite challenging!

From Beachy Head

Advances now, with feathery silver touched, The rippling tide of flood; glisten the sands, While, inmates of the chalky clefts that scar Thy sides precipitous, with shrill harsh cry, Their white wings glancing in the level beam, The terns, and gulls, and tarrocks, seek their food, And thy rough hollows echo to the voice Of the gray choughs, and ever restless daws precipitous: extremely steep terns, gulls, tarrocks: sea birds chough: a type of crow daw: jackdaw, a type of crow

Apply the skills

Read the following poem, then answer the items that follow. Before you do so, you could try to:

• identify particular uses of sound effects in the poem (for example, quickly listing examples of alliteration, using the grid on page 74 to help you)

• consider which senses and emotions they appeal to

• think about the individual impact of words, phrases or lines and the overall impact.

Wind-rush

I’d like to set out a storm watching it like the dream it is watching the sea come emptying its folds of boats

Watching towering palmtrees fall across the backs of running cattle watching the wind carry trees and drop them on top of shack roofs

Hearing leaves of branches whistle –I won’t miss how breezeblow madness batter and beat the place up island-wide knocking things over with sea raging and raging How island-wide bugle-blow of wind batter and mash-up the place break up big limb and banana leaf-them in nothing but a day of wind-rush –screaming plundering plunder e ing cr ying