(How do the sounds help dramatize the meaning and feeling in the poem?)
Which words are onomatopoeic? Explain how each of these words is onomatopoeic by analyzing its vowel and consonant sounds. Onomatopoeia is a word which imitates a sound (ex. crack, splash, squeak, pitter patter).
What assonance and consonance are important in conveying the poem's feelings?
Assonance is the repetition of a vowel sound (a, e, i, o, u) to produce a particular effect.
The following is an extract from Dylan Thomas' "Vision and Prayer" poem to commemorate the home birth of his son. The "o" sound has a ghostly effect to imitate the mystery of creation and the "boom boom" sound of a heartbeat beginning. (You must use your imagination in trying to figure out the effect of an assonance or consonance in a poem):
Who
Are you
Who is born
In the next room
So loud to my own
(from "Vision and Prayer" by Dylan Thomas)
Consonance is the repetition of a consonant sound for a particular effect.
You crash over the trees,
You crack the live branch:
the branch is white,
the green crushed,
each leaf is rent like split wood.
(from "Storm" by Hilda Doolittle)
In this poem, the "bra" and "cr" sounds imitate the cracking of the branches in a storm. The repetition of "sh" and "ch" imitates the sound of the rain and wind in a storm.
Is the length of lines in the poem significant?
Are they short of long? For what effect? Does it suit the feeling and meaning of the poem?
The lines in the following poem are short, perhaps to imitate the cautious, insecure movements of old people:
Old age is
a flight of small
cheeping birds
skimming
bare trees
above a snow glaze.
Gaining and falling
they are buffeted
by a dark wind . . .
(from "To Awaken An Old Lady" by W.C. Williams)
How are words positioned for maximum emphasis? Look especially at the effect of beginning or ending a line with a certain word.