The Sound of Poetry
Alliteration
Each word begins with the same letter
big, bad brother
Spring
By Gerard Manley Hopkins
Nothing is so beautiful as spring –
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightning to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.
What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.
Onomatopoeia
The sound of the word gives a sense of its meaning
crunch, hiss, bang
Noise
By Jessie Pope
I like noise,
The whoop of a boy, the thud of a hoof,
The rattle of rain on a galvanised roof,
The hubbub of traffic, the roar of a train,
The throb of machinery numbing the brain,
The switching of wires in an overhead tram,
The rush of the wind, a door on the slam,
The boom of the thunder, the crash of the waves,
The din of a river that races and raves,
The crack of a rifle, the clank of a pail,
The strident tattoo of a swift-slapping sail –
From any old sound that the silence destroys
Arises a gamut of soul-stirring joys.
I like noise.
Assonance
The same vowel sounds are repeated
wheezed, sneezed, squeezed
From The Lotus-Eaters
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
All day the wind breathes
Low with the mellower tone
Through every hollow cave
And alley lone …
Homonyms
Words that are spelt the same way may even have the same sound but have different meanings
bear (animal and naked) trip (to travel and to fall) tear (to rip and to cry)
Homophones
These words have the same sound but different spellings and meanings
court – caught
Spoonerisms
Spoonerisms occur when you accidentally or deliberately mix up the first letters in two or more words. When you say “I ain’t got no dain bramage’ instead of ‘I ain’t got not brain damage.’
Visual Imagery of Poetry
Similes
A simile is a type of image or verbal picture made by comparing tow things, using the words like or as.
As sharp as a laser beam.
The laundry basket
By Chris Hereward
My shirtsleeve hangs
over the rim of the laundry basket
like a limp human arm
from the jaws of a crocodile.
Metaphors
A metaphor is another way of creating a powerful image in which a comparison is made between two things. A metaphor actually says one objects is another object.
A mobile phone is a teenage tracking device.
The Sea
By James Reeves
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.
Personification
Personification is a metaphor in which human characteristics are given to non-human things.
The wind is angry
By Adrienne Brady
The wind is angry –
he’s been in a rage all night,
stamping his feet, bellowing
and finally breaking out.
In morning light he gallops,
at full tilt, round the house
charging at the walls,
pulling at the thatch
and beating with clenched fists
against the windows.
Even now, he’s thrusting
icy fingers through crevices
and under doors.
The house is tired
and slightly bored;
she watches the listless eyes,
sighs – settles on her haunches
and entrenches herself still more.
Symbolism
Symbolism is when words or phrases have a double meaning. Symbols can be determined by culture and can make a poem more intriguing and more powerful.
A rose could signify love and a child innocence.
A poison tree
By William Blake
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore and apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine.
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe out stretched beneath the tree.
Rhythm
The rhythm is the flow and beat of the poem. It is used to create the mood. Rhythm is created by the stress you place on certain words or parts of words you read.
angry rap
By Komminos
won’t somebody listen, at home it’s the same
listen to us please, i’m always to blame
give us what we ask for, life is just a game
give us what we need. where parents reign.
be seen and not be heard
when i was at school feel like a caged-up bird
i was treated like a fool they have the last word
i tried to be cool it really is absurd.
but i broke all the rules. speak when spoken to
keep in line we have opinions too
get to class on time always tell me what to do
being is a crime don’t give a hoot for you.
submit and you’ll be fine.
sonny where’s your tie. i went to work
give me twenty reasons why i was treated like a jerk
boy, i wish you’d try nearly went berserk
couldn’t wait to say goodbye. work, work, work.
do this, do that
in this society don’t talk, don’t chat
no one listens to me the boss gets fat
the bureaucracy that’s where it’s at.
doesn’t recognise me. lift heavy weights
haven’t i got rights no smoko breaks
do I have to fight? no coming in late
they say go fly a kite no talking to your mates.
i think i just might.
at the end of the queue
makes ya wanna spew
we are people too
just trying to get through.
Rhyme
Words that sound the same, or almost the same, are likely to make us notice them. There is something about words that echo one another in a poem that makes us pay attention and helps us to ‘hear’ the poem. Many poets use rhyme, which is the repetition of sounds.
Rhyme
By Pie Corbett
The trouble with rhymes
that you find sometimes
is that once they are found
you find you are bound
just because of the sound
to use them and then
you do not know when
to stop
Forms of Poetry
Limericks
A limerick is a poem of five lines, which is meant to be absurd and witty. It is often thought of as ‘nonsense’ verse and tells of unlikely events.
An architect sat back and laughed;
’I know that my new plans seem daft.
On each of the floors,
There’s no window or doors –
But at least I’ve got rid of the draught.’
By Frank Richards
Ruptured rhymes
Ruptured rhymes are poems that make fun of traditional nursery rhymes, fairytalkes or well-known stories. They are parodies; that is, they imitate and exaggerate the work of others in order to amuse us.
Twinkle twinkle movie star
In your flashy limo-car.
How you shine with diamonds bright
Flashing smiles of dentures white.
Twinkle twinkle little star
For son you won’t know who you are.
Danny Wee
Cinquains
A cinquain is a poem of five lines. There are two forms. The first type, which we could call a ‘syllable cinquain’, is similar to the haiku and the tanka. In that the length of each line is based on a set number of syllables. The five lines have the following pattern; 2, 4, 6, 8, 2.
I seems
That barbed comments
Baited with some small joke
Hook themselves well into the soul
And rip
Sue Marsden
The second form is called a ‘word cinquain’ and relies upon a set number of words per line. It uses nouns, adjectives and verbs to make up its pattern.
Moonlight
Dazzling, silver
Shimmers, swells, covers
My coolness and fear
Spotlight
Acrostic poems
An acrostic poem is one in which the first letter of each line, read downwards, spells a word.
Yeti
By Gervase Phim
You
Enormous
Tibetan
Iceman
Alphabet poems
Alphabet poems are like acrostic poems but do not spell a word. Instead, every new word or line begins with the next letter of the alphabet; a – z or z – a.
Netball
Athletic barging,
Contacting, defending.
Every fortunate, giggling, happy,
idiotic, jumping, kindly lady
Must not overdo pivots.
Quietly remark; ‘Such terrible
umpiring!’
Vault with expertise,
Yet zone.
Numerical poems
Numerical poems are a fun way of working with letters and numbers at the same time, a marriage of poetry and maths, if you like.
1 1 was a racehorse
2 2 was 1 2
1 1 1 1 race
2 2 1 1 2
Haiku
Haiku originates in Japan and is a very old form of poetry. The aim of a haiku is to capture a single idea, moment or feeling in a clear and precise description. It appears simple, yet allows us to create strong visual images and comparisons.
- It is written in the present tense
- Is unrhymed
- Has 3 lines and 17 syllables organised into a 5, 7, 5 sequence.
Sunset
By Stuart Taylor
Sunset on the sea
drawing cold shapes on water
on wavy canvas.
Tanka
The tanka is also a Japanese form of poetry, much older but less well known than the haiku. It is longer than a haiku, so it allows and image to be extended and gives the poet room to express feelings in more depth. In reality a tanka should create a vivid image, which is related to emotions. I
- It is unrhymed
- Has five lines and contains 31 syllables, organised into a sequence of 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7.
Papers
By Anonymous
The pile of papers
Sprawled across this office desk
Are but memories
of random skittery thoughts
Flitting pas my vacant gaze.
Shape poems
Shapes are part of our world. We grow up learning what shapes mean and share the meaning with others in a type of ‘picture language’.
Africa
By Dave Calder
Direction
When we look at an image, our eyes move across the image in certain ways. We tend to look at the vertical image first, followed by the horizontal. The diagonal direction can give a seeling of movement or change. The direction curves can be either unstable or safe depending on the sharpness of the curves. Triangles can ‘trap’ our eyes and draw attention to a certain image.
Write a way
By Benjamin Zephaniah
Couplet
A couplet is two lines of poetry
The Walrus
By Michael Flanders
The walrus lives on icy floes
And unsuspecting Eskimoes.
Don’t bring your wife to Arctic Tundra
A Walrus may bob up from undra.
Dylan Thomas portraits
This type of poem is named after the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who used words experimentally. This form focuses on the senses and begins with the question ‘Did you ever …?’ The question is then answered with a description. Dylan Thomas portraits are always written in couplet form.
Sound
Did you ever hear a classroom?
Voices rumbling, chairs scraping, teacher shouting.
Ezra Pound couplets
Ezra Pound was an American poet. He wrote unrhymed couplets that gave a powerful descriptive comparison. These comparisons are metaphors, in which one thing is said to be another. In the Ezra Pound couplet there are two statements:
- An image, presented in the first line
- A comparison, present in the second line
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Ezra Pound
Ballads
Ballads are narrative poems; they tell a story. They are usually concerned with a strongly emotional or dramatic event and therefore also contain a lyrical element by presenting a character’s state of mind or feelings. Ballads were originally an oral form of poetry, passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth, and then came to be written down. The word ‘ballad’ comes form the Latin ballade (to dance) and, originally, ballads were sung to accompany dances. Later, the name came to mean any poem composed and sung by minstrels, who were travelling performers.
The traditional ballad tells a clear and straightforward story using strong characters, simple language, easy-to follow actions and sometimes suspense as the full story is gradually revealed. Ballads have strong rhythm, rhyme and repetition and are usually arranged in quatrains – four –line stanzas or groups of lines, which often rhyme.
The ballad of the drover
By Henry Lawson (1889)