by Linda Rief

What Are the Sounds of Poetry?

What is it that makes remembering the hundreds of lyrics to
your favorite songs so easy? Its the rhythm, the beat, the way the
words flow. Its powerful words arranged in the best order. Its the
strongest linerepeated again and again for emphasis. Its the
feeling you get as you slip under the spell of poetry!

Rhythm
Rhythm is a musical quality produced by
repeated sound patterns. All language has
rhythm, but its especially important in poetry.
Meter The most obvious kind of rhythm is the
regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syl-
lables in the words poets put together. This regu-
lar pattern, or beat, is called meter. When poets
decide on a regular beat, they make all the lines
about the same length. Lines with an equal num-
ber of stressed syllables produce the same beat.
Scanning To find a poems meter, read the
poem aloud. Mark each stressed syllable you hear
with the symbol and each unstressed syllable
with the symbol . Marking this pattern is called
scanning. Read these marked lines aloud, and
listen for the beat:
Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches
Had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches
Rhyme
Words rhyme when they end with the same
vowel or vowel/consonant sound, as in the words
clown and noun (both have an ow sound followed
by an n sound). In poetry, rhymes can be simple
(moth with cloth) or more complicated (antelope
with cantaloupe). Rhyme adds a musical quality
to poetry, making it easier to memorize lines,
stanzas (groups of lines that express a complete
idea), or an entire poem.
End Rhyme Most rhymes are end rhymes: The
last word in one line is paired with the last word in
the next line. In the excerpt from The Sneetches
on the left, stars and thars are end rhymes.
Internal Rhyme Sometimes the last word in
one line will be echoed by a word placed at the
beginning or in the middle of the following line.
This is called an internal rhyme. Listen for inter-
nal rhymes in these lines:
The rumbling, tumbling stones,
And Bones, bones, bones!
from The Sea by James Reeves

Had none upon thars.

from The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss

644 Unit 3 Collection 7

 SKILLS FOCUS Literary Skills Understand rhythm and
meter; understand rhyme and rhyme scheme; understand
repetition and refrain; understand sound effects in poetry.

Rhyme Scheme The pattern of rhyming Alliteration The repetition of consonant

sounds at the ends of lines in a poem is the rhyme sounds in words that are close together is called
scheme. In addition to marking the meter in a alliteration. Alliteration often occurs at the begin-
poem, you can also mark the rhyme scheme. To ning of a word, but sometimes it is within or at the
mark rhyme scheme, identify words that rhyme end of a word. Hear the repetition of wh sounds in
by labeling them with the same letter. This rhyme these lines. Can you also hear the s sounds?
scheme from The Sea is a-b-b-b-a. Listen:
It laughs a lovely whiteness,
Hour upon hour he gnaws a And whitely whirs away.
The rumbling, tumbling stones, b from Cynthia in the Snow
And Bones, bones, bones! b by Gwendolyn Brooks
The giant sea dog moans, b
Licking his greasy paws. a Onomatopoeia The use of a word whose
sound suggests its meaningsuch as buzz or
sniffis called onomatopoeia (ahn uh mat uh
Free Verse Not all poems rhyme, nor do all
PEE uh). The word meow is another example.
poems have a regular meter. A poet may decide
not to use a regular meter and rhyme scheme,
With a meow
writing instead in loose groupings of words and
Like the rusty latch
phrases. This style is known as free verse. Like a
On a gate.
conversation, free verse does not have a regular
from Ode to Mi Gato by Gary Soto
beat, and it usually does not rhyme. Heres the
beginning of a poem written in free verse:

Fifty cents apiece

To eat our lunch Your Turn Analyze Sounds
Wed run of Poetry
Straight from school
Instead of home 1. Why might a poet want to write in free verse
from Good Hot Dogs instead of using a regular rhyme and meter?
by Sandra Cisneros
2. Give an example of the following sounds
from a poem or song, or make up your own:

Sound Example
Other Sound Effects Rhyme
Repetition and Refrain Poetry relies on rep- Alliteration
etition, the recurrence or repeating of something. Onomatopoeia
Rhymes are created by ending sounds that repeat.
Rhythm is created by beats that repeat. A poet
may repeat a word, phrase, line, or group of lines
to make a refrain. A poems refrain, like a songs Learn It Online
Try the PowerNotes version of this lesson at:
chorus, may be the part that sticks in our minds.
go.hrw.com L6-645 Go

Literary Focus 645