Word Choice, Word Order, Tone, and Sound. Importance of Sounds in Poetry

Transcription

1 Word Choice, Word Order, Tone, and Sound Importance of Sounds in Poetry

2 Word Choice- Diction Diction, the choice of words, plays an important role in conveying meaning. With careful use of diction, poets can create effective work. Functioning in a compressed atmosphere, the words in a poem must convey meanings gracefully and economically (Meyer, 65). Types of diction: Poetic Diction, formal diction, informal diction and dialect, and jargon.

3 Word Choice- Denotations and Connotations Denotations: The literal, dictionary meanings of a word Example of bird in the book (Meyer, 67). Connotations: associations and implications that go beyond a word s literal meanings. Connotations derive from how the word has been used and the associations people make with it (Meyer, 67). Example of bird and theater in the book (Meyer, 67).

4 How Does Word Choice Affect Tone and Meaning? To determine the effects of word choice in a poem: Tone Connotation Meaning 1. Figure out the connotations of the poet s word choices 2. Recognize how the pattern of connotations impacts the meaning and tone

5 Word Order and Tone Meanings in poems are conveyed by the poet s arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences to achieve particular effects The ordering of words into meaningful verbal patterns is called syntax (Meyer, 70). Consider the example of Dickinson s A Narrow Fellow in the Grass. Tone is the writer s attitude toward the subject, the mood created by all the elements in the poem (Meyer, 70). Like speech, writing can be characterized as serious or light, sad or happy, private or public, angry or affectionate, bitter or nostalgic, or by any other attitudes and feelings that human beings experience (Meyer, 70).

6 Different Tones Suggest the Meaning 1. The Road Not Taken by/ Robert Frost I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Frost tells us about his past with a sigh, this gives the above lines an unhappy tone. This tone leads us into thinking that the speaker in the poem had to make a difficult choice Tone and Diction in Hazel Tells LaVerne by/ Katharyn Howd Machan (73)

7 Sounds Poems are arranged specifically for their sounds as well as for their meanings (Meyer, 181). Poems yearn to be read aloud.. when a voice is breathed into a good poem, there is pleasure in the reading, the saying, and the hearing (Meyer, 181). Onomatopoeia is the use of a word that resembles the sound it denotes: quack, buzz, rattle, bang, squeak, bowwow, burp, choo-choo, ding-a-ling, sizzle. (Meyer, 186).

8 Examples of Onomatopoeia Hark, hark! Bow-wow. The watch-dogs bark! Bow-wow. Hark, hark! I hear The strain of strutting chanticleer Cry, cock-a-diddle-dow!' (Ariel in William Shakespeare s The Tempest, Act One, scene 2) I m getting married in the morning! Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime. ( Get Me to the Church on Time, by Lerner and Loewe) We notice, in the above examples, the use of onomatopoeia gives rhythm to the texts. In addition, it makes the description livelier and interesting, appealing directly to the senses of the reader.

9 Sounds Examples of Sound Effects Used in Poetry Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds at the beginnings of nearby words descending dewdrops, luscious lemons. or repetition of the consonant sounds used within the words: trespasser s reproach, wedded lady. Alliteration is based on sound rather than spelling; keen and car alliterate, but car does not alliterate with cite. Overdoing alliteration weakens rather than strengthens meaning. Horrendous horrors haunted Helen s happiness. Example: Edgar Allan Poe s The Haunted Palace Banners yellow, glorious, golden,/on its roof did float and flow The purpose of alliteration: 1. To create rhythm, 2. to create mood, 3. to make you laugh, 4. to help you remember,

10 Sounds Examples of Sound Effects Used in Poetry Assonance is the repetition of the same vowel sound in nearby words asleep under a tree, time and tide, haunt and awesome, each evening. Both alliteration and assonance help to establish relations among words in a line or a series of lines. The effect of repetition can either create euphony or cacophony. Euphony is the arrangement of lines that are musically pleasant to the ear and smooth, like the final lines of Dickinson s A Bird Came Down the Walk Cacophony is the arrangement of lines that are discordant and difficult to pronounce (Meyer, 187)

11 Euphony in Keats To Autumn Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch -eves run; To bend with apples the moss d cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Keats has used euphony in the whole poem which gives soothing and pleasing effects. Long vowel sounds like mellow, maturing, load, ripeness and semi-vowels like s and w sounds are exquisitely used.

12 Cacophony in Macbeth Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One, two. Why, then, tis time to do t. Hell is murky! Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. What is the function of cacophony in this excerpt? In this example of cacophony from William Shakespeare s tragedy Macbeth, the character Lady Macbeth is in the grips of severe mental distress. She is sleepwalking and remembering how she and her husband murdered the former King Duncan. Shakespeare brilliantly uses cacophony in this excerpt to portray Lady Macbeth s descent into madness. The first, most famous line, is full of explosive consonants and short words Out, damned spot! Out I say! She continues on in this vein with many other strong consonants illustrating her distress.