Sound Devices in Poetry

​Sound in Poetry

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​Poems are meant to be read aloud.

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​Poets help to develop meaning

and express feelings

through the use of sound.

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​Sound Devices

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• Alliteration

• Consonance

• Assonance

• Onomatopoeia

• Rhyme

• ​Repetition

​Assonance

• ​Same vowel sound found at the beginning, middle, or end of nearby words

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Multiple Select

Read the following lines from "The Cold Wind Blows"

Who knows why the cold wind blows,

or where it goes, or what it knows

Select three words from this poem that have the same vowel sound.

• cold

• knows

• blows

• goes

• or

Consonance​

• ​Repetition of consonant sounds in the beginning, the middle, or at the end of nearby words.

Traffic figures, on July Fourth, to be tough.

It's about the sound of the letters, not the letters themselves.

Multiple Select

Read this line of poetry:

Select four words that have the same consonant sound within or at the end of the words.

• thrusts

• fists

• still

• insists

• ghosts

​Alliteration

• Repetition of a consonant sound

• ​Found at the beginning of words

• Words are in close proximity to each other

• Often used in brand names.

​"Beyond the Red River"

by THOMAS MCGRATH

      

The birds have flown their summer skies to the south,       

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And the flower-money is drying in the banks of bent grass.

Multiple Choice

Read these lines from, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe.

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

What examples of alliteration are in these two lines?

• silken, sad

• thrilled, filled

• uncertain, curtain

• filled, fantastic, felt

Multiple Choice

What does this poem have?

• assonance

• alliteration

• consonance

​Onomatopeia

• Words that represent a sound

Multiple Select

Select words below that are examples of onomatopoeia.

• squeal

• drip

• splish

• splash

• rain

​Repetition

• ​When a word, phrase, or line is repeated within the poem.

• ​Used when the poet wants to emphasize a specific event, idea, or feeling.

• ​Creates a pattern

• ​Increases the rhythm of the poem.