Rachel Lindley
08-04-2002, 11:13 AM
Over a year ago, I wrote a response to a PFFA member and addressed issues relating to sonics and rhythm in the English language, and more specifically in poetry. This is a vital component of poetry, in my opinion, just after learning to use concrete, active language and original imagery, or perhaps even equal to these. Therefore, I've edited and expanded the response to essay size for your benefit. There may be phonic or rhythmic terms in the essay which I have hyperlinked to Dictionary.com (http://www.dictionary.com) in order to help you if you are unfamiliar with the words.
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Rhythm and Sound in Poetry
It seems that some people are unfairly born with rhythm whereas others must really make an effort to be aware of the varying nature in the human voice. This reminds me of those people who just can't keep time to music or dance. Some of us have to work very hard at training our ear to listen to our own voice. It's often something we've been taught out of and instructed is a selfish and self-absorbed act. In fact, a careful ear can help you communicate with others more clearly and improve the chances of few misunderstandings.
First, I want to focus briefly on rhythm by discussing stressed and unstressed sounds. To help you determine whether a syllable is stressed or unstressed, think of the voice, and more specifically poetry, as a form of music. When reading aloud, try to focus your ear on where your voice rises in pitch and volume. If you translated it into "dum dee dums", the stressed syllables are all the "dums", and the unstressed syllables are all the "dees". Only as a last resort should you cheat and use the dictionary to learn where the stresses fall in a word. In fact, I strongly recommend you only do so as a confirmation of your aural work, rather than as the beginning of it.
Staying with the musical metaphor, it's always a good idea to vary the rhythm by varying the relative strengths and weaknesses of your dums and dees. One dum can be stronger than another dum. In fact, it's possible that a dee is actually stronger than a dum 4 lines up. It's this awareness of rhythm which will allow you to add tempo changes in your work that make things interesting and appealing as well as reinforce intent. If you have the same steady beat going on and on, it gets monotonous, and readers will tend to tune out and move on to another station, to take this metaphor too far.
If you write a line of poetry with far more dees than dums -- that is, more unstressed syllables than stressed ones -- the faster your music will be. Examples of this are very common in light metric poetry, because the light, quick rhythm accentuates the light, witty language. If you decide to put more dums than dees in a line of poetry -- in other words, you have more heavy stresses then light unstressed syllables -- the slower the music will be. If you go crazy on the dums, the line can even become ponderous and weighty.
When the voice stresses a syllable, the pitch rises, creating more focus and emphasis. When it doesn't, the voice seems to skip across the unstressed syllable (although this can be counteracted with phonemes (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=phoneme), but I'm getting ahead of myself). If one has enough unstressed syllables in a row, the voice can even begin to meld syllables together into one (called elision), especially if you have a lot of smooth, open sounds with no K or hard G glottal stops (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=glottal%20stop). That's where the archaic "e'er" comes from, which is an elision of "ever".
Now let's add consonant and vowel phonemes to the mix. When you read a poem aloud, keeping in mind the rhythm as you do so, you may begin to get a sense, not only of the relative speed and pitch of the voice, but the overall "feeling" or "atmosphere" that may be generated by the sounds. (Remember: always read aloud.) For instance, if you have a lot of short, quick phonemes, such as a lot of unvoiced plosive consonants (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=plosive) or glottal consonants like "t", "k", "p", or "g" and a lot of short vowel sounds like "eh", "ih" or "ah", a line moves quickly and sharply. Enough sharp, unvoiced consonants like "p", "t" or "k", and when read aloud you will feel as if you almost spit the words. Add a lot of unvoiced sibilant (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=sibilant) fricatives (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=fricative) or affricatives (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=affricate) like "s", "sh" or "ch", and a line may sound hissed, which can be either threatening or alluring, depending on the length of the vowels. Short vowels like "ah", "ih", and "eh" can increase pitch and speed; long, open vowels (especially dipthongs (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=dipthong)) like "aw", "oh", "ow" and "oo" deepen and slow the pitch and speed. Voiced fricatives like "th" in "them", "v", "z" or "zh" sounds in combination with nasals (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=nasal) or semi-vowels (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=semi-vowel) like "w", "m", "n", or "y" will generally smooth (a perfect example, by the way) and slow a line.
Now you need to make your careful ear listen to the choice of stressed and unstressed syllables along with the various phonemes. These are intensely powerful tools in modulating tone, mood, and atmosphere in language. You unconsciously use these tools every time you chat with friends, family, employer, or employee. For example, when you're angry with someone, you will often automatically start using words with more "spitting" fricatives and plosives, as well as strident open vowels such as "ay" or "ee" in combination with sharp, short vowels such as "ah" or "ih". Why? Because it's very effective at making a point about how you feel. It's generally universal; human beings around the globe react similarly to similar phonemes. It's not universal enough that misunderstandings don't occur between different cultures, however. For example, a North American ear may sometimes feel that a person speaking Chinese is screeching or yelling, and this is because the Chinese language is a tone language (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=tone%20language).
Some of the most interesting poetry to read uses a unique combination of sounds and stresses to vary the tempo and thus build tension and interest. To use metric poetry as an example: a piece written entirely in iambic pentameter (five units of "weak-strong" syllabic stresses called "feet") shouldn't read in a sing-songy voice even though the stresses are all "weak-strong", because the varying sounds change the tempo throughout the piece. The strong stress of a preceding iambic foot may be weaker than the weak stress of the iambic foot that follows. This creates an interesting rhythm that stops you from using a nursery rhyme sing-songy voice. However, if a beginner poet is writing a sonnet and starts throwing in a lot of non-iambic stressed and unstressed syllables, the rhythm can stutter and interfere with the intent of the piece. In other words, if you're a beginner writing metric poetry, try sticking to the rhythm you choose and modulating the various "dums" and "dees" within that rhythm. With more practice, you can then start throwing in substitutions to advance your intent, such as putting a trochee -- a strong-weak foot, which would be "dum-dee" -- at the beginning of a line you want to emphasise.
Although free verse has no set stress pattern, one must always keep in mind the effect that the piece's rhythm and sound will have on a reader. Are there a lot of heavy stresses all in a row? A lot of light, unstressed syllables? Taking into consideration the subject of the piece, does that help or hinder the poem? Does the stress-unstress pattern allow for a smooth read, or does it stop and stutter? Does that help or hinder the piece? What about the vowel/consonant choices? Do they speed up or slow down the piece and what kind of mood or atmosphere do those specific sounds imply? These are all important questions to ask yourself in order to train your ears to be careful listeners.
Sometimes the best way to learn about these things is to read poetry rather than write it, and see how the poets experiment with those sounds and rhythms to build tension, speed, and mood. Pick a favourite, one that always led you to get the chills or have a strong emotional response. Can you pick up on how the writer uses rhythm and tone to advance the poem's intent? That's where you want to go when writing your own poetry. Never let the sound escape you or the language control you. With a careful ear, you will always be the one in control of the sound.
A great resource on the rhythm and sound of poetry is Robert Pinsky's The Sounds of Poetry (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374526176/selendycommunica/104-9829858-1349529). I always recommend you do a bit of reading and train the ear somewhat before reading the book, since sometimes it can seem overwhelming. However, it's generally an easygoing and approachable work, and will help you both enjoy the reading process and the writing process more.
Rachel
[This message has been edited by TheBroad (edited 08-04-2002).]
***************
Rhythm and Sound in Poetry
It seems that some people are unfairly born with rhythm whereas others must really make an effort to be aware of the varying nature in the human voice. This reminds me of those people who just can't keep time to music or dance. Some of us have to work very hard at training our ear to listen to our own voice. It's often something we've been taught out of and instructed is a selfish and self-absorbed act. In fact, a careful ear can help you communicate with others more clearly and improve the chances of few misunderstandings.
First, I want to focus briefly on rhythm by discussing stressed and unstressed sounds. To help you determine whether a syllable is stressed or unstressed, think of the voice, and more specifically poetry, as a form of music. When reading aloud, try to focus your ear on where your voice rises in pitch and volume. If you translated it into "dum dee dums", the stressed syllables are all the "dums", and the unstressed syllables are all the "dees". Only as a last resort should you cheat and use the dictionary to learn where the stresses fall in a word. In fact, I strongly recommend you only do so as a confirmation of your aural work, rather than as the beginning of it.
Staying with the musical metaphor, it's always a good idea to vary the rhythm by varying the relative strengths and weaknesses of your dums and dees. One dum can be stronger than another dum. In fact, it's possible that a dee is actually stronger than a dum 4 lines up. It's this awareness of rhythm which will allow you to add tempo changes in your work that make things interesting and appealing as well as reinforce intent. If you have the same steady beat going on and on, it gets monotonous, and readers will tend to tune out and move on to another station, to take this metaphor too far.
If you write a line of poetry with far more dees than dums -- that is, more unstressed syllables than stressed ones -- the faster your music will be. Examples of this are very common in light metric poetry, because the light, quick rhythm accentuates the light, witty language. If you decide to put more dums than dees in a line of poetry -- in other words, you have more heavy stresses then light unstressed syllables -- the slower the music will be. If you go crazy on the dums, the line can even become ponderous and weighty.
When the voice stresses a syllable, the pitch rises, creating more focus and emphasis. When it doesn't, the voice seems to skip across the unstressed syllable (although this can be counteracted with phonemes (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=phoneme), but I'm getting ahead of myself). If one has enough unstressed syllables in a row, the voice can even begin to meld syllables together into one (called elision), especially if you have a lot of smooth, open sounds with no K or hard G glottal stops (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=glottal%20stop). That's where the archaic "e'er" comes from, which is an elision of "ever".
Now let's add consonant and vowel phonemes to the mix. When you read a poem aloud, keeping in mind the rhythm as you do so, you may begin to get a sense, not only of the relative speed and pitch of the voice, but the overall "feeling" or "atmosphere" that may be generated by the sounds. (Remember: always read aloud.) For instance, if you have a lot of short, quick phonemes, such as a lot of unvoiced plosive consonants (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=plosive) or glottal consonants like "t", "k", "p", or "g" and a lot of short vowel sounds like "eh", "ih" or "ah", a line moves quickly and sharply. Enough sharp, unvoiced consonants like "p", "t" or "k", and when read aloud you will feel as if you almost spit the words. Add a lot of unvoiced sibilant (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=sibilant) fricatives (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=fricative) or affricatives (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=affricate) like "s", "sh" or "ch", and a line may sound hissed, which can be either threatening or alluring, depending on the length of the vowels. Short vowels like "ah", "ih", and "eh" can increase pitch and speed; long, open vowels (especially dipthongs (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=dipthong)) like "aw", "oh", "ow" and "oo" deepen and slow the pitch and speed. Voiced fricatives like "th" in "them", "v", "z" or "zh" sounds in combination with nasals (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=nasal) or semi-vowels (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=semi-vowel) like "w", "m", "n", or "y" will generally smooth (a perfect example, by the way) and slow a line.
Now you need to make your careful ear listen to the choice of stressed and unstressed syllables along with the various phonemes. These are intensely powerful tools in modulating tone, mood, and atmosphere in language. You unconsciously use these tools every time you chat with friends, family, employer, or employee. For example, when you're angry with someone, you will often automatically start using words with more "spitting" fricatives and plosives, as well as strident open vowels such as "ay" or "ee" in combination with sharp, short vowels such as "ah" or "ih". Why? Because it's very effective at making a point about how you feel. It's generally universal; human beings around the globe react similarly to similar phonemes. It's not universal enough that misunderstandings don't occur between different cultures, however. For example, a North American ear may sometimes feel that a person speaking Chinese is screeching or yelling, and this is because the Chinese language is a tone language (http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=tone%20language).
Some of the most interesting poetry to read uses a unique combination of sounds and stresses to vary the tempo and thus build tension and interest. To use metric poetry as an example: a piece written entirely in iambic pentameter (five units of "weak-strong" syllabic stresses called "feet") shouldn't read in a sing-songy voice even though the stresses are all "weak-strong", because the varying sounds change the tempo throughout the piece. The strong stress of a preceding iambic foot may be weaker than the weak stress of the iambic foot that follows. This creates an interesting rhythm that stops you from using a nursery rhyme sing-songy voice. However, if a beginner poet is writing a sonnet and starts throwing in a lot of non-iambic stressed and unstressed syllables, the rhythm can stutter and interfere with the intent of the piece. In other words, if you're a beginner writing metric poetry, try sticking to the rhythm you choose and modulating the various "dums" and "dees" within that rhythm. With more practice, you can then start throwing in substitutions to advance your intent, such as putting a trochee -- a strong-weak foot, which would be "dum-dee" -- at the beginning of a line you want to emphasise.
Although free verse has no set stress pattern, one must always keep in mind the effect that the piece's rhythm and sound will have on a reader. Are there a lot of heavy stresses all in a row? A lot of light, unstressed syllables? Taking into consideration the subject of the piece, does that help or hinder the poem? Does the stress-unstress pattern allow for a smooth read, or does it stop and stutter? Does that help or hinder the piece? What about the vowel/consonant choices? Do they speed up or slow down the piece and what kind of mood or atmosphere do those specific sounds imply? These are all important questions to ask yourself in order to train your ears to be careful listeners.
Sometimes the best way to learn about these things is to read poetry rather than write it, and see how the poets experiment with those sounds and rhythms to build tension, speed, and mood. Pick a favourite, one that always led you to get the chills or have a strong emotional response. Can you pick up on how the writer uses rhythm and tone to advance the poem's intent? That's where you want to go when writing your own poetry. Never let the sound escape you or the language control you. With a careful ear, you will always be the one in control of the sound.
A great resource on the rhythm and sound of poetry is Robert Pinsky's The Sounds of Poetry (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374526176/selendycommunica/104-9829858-1349529). I always recommend you do a bit of reading and train the ear somewhat before reading the book, since sometimes it can seem overwhelming. However, it's generally an easygoing and approachable work, and will help you both enjoy the reading process and the writing process more.
Rachel
[This message has been edited by TheBroad (edited 08-04-2002).]