Unit 2: Poetry (a) Alliteration
Tis is where words begin with the same letter, creating a certain type of music and linking ideas e.g. ‘I hear Lake water Lapping with Low sounds by the shore’. Te alliteration on the ‘l’ sound creates a gentle flowing motion in the line. Te sound of the lapping lake water is low and gentle. Compare this to ‘Over the Cobbles he Clattered and Clashed’, where the alliteration on a hard ‘c’ consonant imitates the harsh noise made by a horse’s hooves on an uneven surface. Watch out for alliteration in all your studied poems and also in any unseen poems. Be ready to comment on its effect. It is not just enough to say it is there!
(b) Assonance
Tis refers to the patterns made by vowel sounds. Te main vowels are ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’ and ‘u’, but ‘w’ and ‘y’ can also sometimes act as vowel sounds. Vowels can be long or short. Compare the ‘a’ sound in the word ‘cage’ with the ‘a’ sound in the word ‘cat’. Long vowels slow down the pace of a poem and can be used to show sadness or grief:
‘Alone, alone, all, all alone, / Alone on a wide wide sea!’
However, if a poet wants a lively, brisk pace, he or she will use assonance on short vowels: ‘. . . the tedding and the spreading / Of the straw for a bedding’.
Remember that the same letter can make different sounds. Focus on the sound only, not the letter, when discussing assonance.
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Underline every example of alliteration and circle the assonance in the following verse from ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ by W.B. Yeats:
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee; And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
(c) Onomatopoeia
Tis is where a word imitates a sound. e.g. the buzzing of the bees, the puck of a ball, the ting, tong, tang of the guitar, cuckoo, splash, crack etc. Onomatopoeia can add tremendous colour and music to the sound quality of a poem.
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