Poets often use sound effects, including alliteration (the repetition of consonantal sounds) and sibilance (a hissing sound effect achieved using ‘s’ and/or ‘sh’ sounds), to enhance their poetry.
ALLITERATION Kennelly uses alliteration to highlight key words and ideas. For example:
„„‘the poverty of praise’ (‘“Dear Autumn Girl”’) Here Kennelly uses alliteration to emphasise his inability to articulate how wonderful this girl is to him; his praise is a poor substitute for her greatness.
„„‘My heart’s wound/ Why was I not with you/ When you were shot’ (‘A Cry for Art O’Leary’)
‘A home heart-broken’ (‘A Cry for Art O’Leary’)
Both of these examples show how effective alliteration can be in an oral tradition, as it makes key words and phrases stand out more and it adds musicality to the lament.
SIBILANCE
Kennelly uses sibilance to draw us into his poems and to emphasise certain points. For example:
„„‘at crying birds in the sudden rain/ at branches stark in the willing sunlight’ (‘Begin’) The repeated ‘s’ sounds here sound wet, like the sudden rain.
„„‘shapes me with her skill’ (‘Bread’)
The sibilance here connects the words ‘shapes’ and ‘skill’, emphasising how much control this woman has over this man and how she is able to manipulate him skilfully.
„„‘I love your silver-hilted sword’ (‘A Cry for Art O’Leary’)
A simple reason for the sibilance here is that the original audience would have been impressed by silver metal and by a sword. The sibilance helps to emphasise the fact that O’Leary was rich and powerful enough to have such a weapon. The sibilance also draws our attention to a possible double entendre (double meaning).
