Sound Devices

Foundation Lesson

Below are excerpts from poems that contain effective sound devices. Study the devices and the
explanation of the effect of the devices. It is not enough merely to identify the sound devices:
Close Reading

• alliteration
• assonance
• consonance
• onomatopoeia
• rhyme
• rhythm
• meter

You must know and be able to explain the effect of the sound device in the passage.

“All day the out-cast crows croak hoarsely across the whiteness.” Elizabeth Coatsworth

The sound devices create a jarring cacophony of the raucous sounds the crows make.
• The harsh “k” sound occurs four times: “out-cast crows croak…across.”
• Several syllables in a row are stressed, slowing down the pace and producing a rough
rhythm: “out-cast crows croak.”
• The long “o” sound, a sound usually associated with mournfulness or solemnity, occurs
three times: “crows croak hoarsely.”

“Myriads of rivulets hurrying through the lawn,

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.” Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The sound devices create a pleasurable sense of soothing sights and sounds.
• The alliterative “m’s” create a euphonious, soothing effect:
“myriads…moan…immemorial elms…murmuring…innumerable”
• The repeated short “i” sounds (assonance) create a sense of delicacy and beauty:
“Myriads…rivulets…immemorial…innumerable”
• The regular pattern of stressed syllables creates a pleasing pace and rhythm.
• The onomatopoetic word “murmuring” echoes the sound of the bees.

“Bombs, drums, guns, bastions, batteries, bayonets, bullets, –

Hard words, which stick in the soft Muses’ gullets.” George Gordon, Lord Byron

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 Close Reading

The sound devices create a sense of disorder, even violence.

• The alliteration in the first line repeats the harsh-sounding “b” sound. The “d” in “drums”
and the “g” in “guns” are also harsh-sounding consonants.
• The first three monosyllabic words are stressed, slowing down the pace, and the rest of the
line contains words in which the first syllable is stressed, creating a disturbing rhythm.

Close Reading
Practice

Identify the sound devices in the following passages and explain their rhetorical effect.
Then follow directions for writing lines of poetry, imitating those sound devices.

I shoot the Hippopotamus

with bullets made of platinum,
Because if I use leaden ones
his hide is sure to flatten ‘em.

Hilaire Belloc, from “The Hippopotamus”

1. Sound device(s)____________________________________

2. Effect of device(s)

3. Write a four-line poem, using the exact same sound device(s), aiming for the same effect as in
Belloc’s poem.

Full fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell;
Ding-dong
Hark! Now I hear them – Ding-dong, bell.

William Shakespeare, from The Tempest

4. Sound device in last two lines_________________________

5. Effect of device

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 6. Write four lines of poetry, using the same sound device as Shakespeare used in the last two
lines. Be creative and original. Try to think of something new.

This passage is John Milton’s description of the gates of hell:

On a sudden open fly

Close Reading

With impetuous recoil and jarring sound

The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook
Of Erebus.

John Milton, from Paradise Lost

7. Sound device_______________________________________
(Look not only at the beginning of words; look for repetition.)

8. Effect of device_____________________________________

9. Write four lines of poetry, using this device at the beginning of words and in other positions
in the words. Aim for a minimum of six examples.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;

The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs, the deep
Moans round with many voices…

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from “Ulysses”

10. For this sound device, you will need to look at the accented and unaccented syllables in the
second line. Notice the definite pattern of stressed syllables. Mark the accented syllables.

11. Explain the effect of this pattern.

12. Write two lines of poetry imitating this pattern.

The splendor falls on castle walls

And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from “The Splendor Falls”

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 Close Reading

13. This passage employs three different sound devices. Identify each one.

14. Explain the effect of the sound devices.

15. Write four to six lines of poetry, using all three of these sound devices.

Close Reading
Challenge

…and then it was

There interposed a fly
With blue, uncertain stumbling buzz
Between the light and me…

Emily Dickinson, from “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died”

1. Identify the three different types of sound devices.

2. Explain the effect of those devices.

3. Write four lines of poetry employing all three types of sound devices. Strive to create one
predominant tone in your four lines of poetry.

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