MODULE 5: ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE DEVICES THAT ENHANCE THE RHYTHM AND MOOD OF A POEM

The learning objectives of this module are:

• To understand common devices used to enhance the rhythm of a poem.
• To understand common devices that enhance the mood of a poem, including: alliteration and hyperbole.
  

INTRODUCTION

As we have already discussed, poetry is a compressed form of writing insofar as the essence and substance of a poem should be contained within a much smaller space than most other written art forms such as literature, stage scripts, screenplays etc. However, as with all great literature simply by carefully choosing the perfect word, sound, structure and form, and by using the appropriate devices needed to enhance the rhythm and mood of a poem.; a poet can create an incredible piece of poetry.

DEVICES THAT ENHANCE RHYTHM

Repetition has been used for centuries in song lyrics, prayers and religious chants as a powerful way of evoking emphasis and unifying belief. And in poetry, repetition can be used to create a certain flow or force. In repeating certain words, phrases, lines or even stanzas, repetition can create rhythm, add urgency, or even underline or highlight an idea or something of significance. 

The Bells

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849)

(Lines 1 - 14)

Hear the sledges with the bells -

     Silver bells!

What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

     How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,

     In the icy air of night!

     While the stars that oversprinkle

     All the heavens, seem to twinkle

     With a crystalline delight;

    Keeping time, time, time,

     In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells

     From the bells, bells, bells, bells,

          Bells, bells, bells—

     From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

Poe uses the word 'bell' to create a similar sound of actual bells ringing.

Do not go gentle into that good night

Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953)

(Lines 1 - 12)

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

And notice how Dylan Thomas uses repeated lines to create a building of intensity throughout the work.

ANAPHORA

Anaphora refers to the repetition of a word at the start of several consecutive lines within a poem. 

Some Feel Rain

By Joanna Klink (Born 1969)

Some feel rain. Some feel the beetle startle

in its ghost-part when the bark

slips. Some feel musk. Asleep against

each other in the whiskey dark, scarcely there.

When it falls apart, some feel the moondark air

drop its motes to the patch-thick slopes of

snow. Tiny blinkings of ice from the oak,

a boot-beat that comes and goes, the line of prayer

you can follow from the dusking wind to the snowy owl

it carries. Some feel sunlight

well up in blood-vessels below the skin

and wish there had been less to lose.

EPISTROPHE

Epistrophe is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive lines or clauses.

The Merchant Of Venice

By William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

(Excerpt) 

If you had known the virtue of the ring,

Or half her worthiness that gave the ring,

Or your own honour to contain the ring,

You would not then have parted with the ring.

Song of Myself

By Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

(Lines 41 - 44)

There was never any more inception than there is now,

Nor any more youth or age than there is now,

And will never be any more perfection than there is now,

Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.

MESODIPLOSIS

Mesodiplosis refers to the repetition of a word in the middle of every line or clause.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;

perplexed, but not in despair; 

persecuted, but not abandoned;

struck down, but not destroyed.

ANTISTASIS

Often used to highlight contrasts or conflicts in thoughts, feelings, experiences or choices, antistasis is the repetition of words reflecting opposite ideas.

Community

By John Donne (1572 - 1631)

Good we must love, and must hate ill,

For ill is ill, and good good still;

     But there are things indifferent,

Which we may neither hate, nor love,

But one, and then another prove,

     As we shall find our fancy bent.

SYMPLOCE

A symploce is when a word or phrase is used successively at the beginning of two or more clauses or sentences, and another word or phrase with a similar wording is used successively at the end of them.

First They Came

By Martin Niemöller (1892 - 1984)

First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

PARALLEL STRUCTURE

Parallel structure is the repetition of a pattern of words, phrases or clauses, wherein the grammatical form and length are similar, thereby adding rhythm and balance, enhancing readability, and giving equal importance to the ideas within the sentence.

We Real Cool 

By Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 - 2000)

The Pool Players.

Seven at the Golden Shovel.

We real cool. We 

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We 

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We 

Die soon.

ASSONANCE & CONSONANCE

Another form of repetition and a way of altering the speed or rhythm of lines of poetry is through the use of assonance and consonance.

ASSONANCE

Assonance is the repetition of similar vowel sounds, anywhere in the middle or end of a line or stanza. The long vowel sounds will slow down the energy and make the mood more sombre, while high sounds can increase the energy level of the piece. Assonance examples can be hard to find, because they are often subtle and work subconsciously. For example: Dylan Thomas' Do Not Go Gentle into the Good Night, touches upon the subject of death and sets the mood by using assonance as a literary tool:

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage, against the dying of the light...

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

CONSONANCE

Frequently used as a poetic device and allowing poets to arrange words in an interesting way, the focus - in the use of consonance - is on the sound made by consonants and not necessarily the letters themselves. In addition, similar consonant sounds can appear at the beginning, middle, or end of words, and consonance is created when these words appear in quick succession.

The Raven

By Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849)

     But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,

Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;

     Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking

     Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore

    Meant in croaking “Nevermore.”

ENHANCING THE MOOD OF A POEM

When we talk about the mood of a poem, we are talking about the atmosphere it creates, and the feelings that it arouses in us. Whether sadness, joy, anger, love, hopelessness, hopefulness, poetry should evoke strong emotions within the reader. Poetry isn't prose, so every word and every line in a poem should be meaningful and should matter. The mood of a poem however, should not be confused with tone - tone is the author's attitude towards the poem's subject and sets the mood of the story, which in turn shapes the experience and atmosphere of the poem. The sound of the poem, the choice of words, its structure and the personification of nature or non-living subjects - these all help create a specific mood within a poem. 

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

By T. S. Eliot (1888 - 1965)

(Lines 6 - 22)

Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels

And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:

Streets that follow like a tedious argument

Of insidious intent

To lead you to an overwhelming question...

Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”

Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,

The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,

Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,

Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,

Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,

Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,

And seeing that it was a soft October night,

Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

ALLITERATION

Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of a word in order to add musical flow or structure to a piece. Alliteration can also make the poem easier to memorise.

Mother Goose

Author unknown

Betty Botter bought some butter,

"But," she said, "the butter's bitter;

If I put it in my batter,

It will make my batter bitter;

But a bit of better butter,

That would make my batter better."

So she bought a bit of butter,

Better than her bitter butter,

And she put it in her batter,

And the batter was not bitter;

So it was better that Betty Botter

Bought a bit of better butter.

The Eagle

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892)

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

ONOMATOPOEIA

Onomatopoeia is the use of words that mimic a sound, so that word sounds like its meaning. For example buzz, razz, whack, fizz, zap, zing, ping, boom etc., and poets often use onomatopoeia words to create the maximum effect in telling a story or setting a scene within the small and compressed space of a poem.

Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio

Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)

(Lines 1 - 8)

It's a jazz affair, drum crashes and cornet razzes.

The trombone pony neighs and the tuba jackass snorts.

The banjo tickles and titters too awful.

The chippies talk about the funnies in the papers.

     The cartoonists weep in their beer.

     Ship riveters talk with their feet

     To the feet of floozies under the tables.

HYPERBOLE

Hyperbole is over-exaggeration, but not meant to be taken literally. It can be used to be funny, or to emphasise a point and make the reader understand just how much the writer felt in that moment. For example: "I am so hungry I could eat a horse."

As I Walked Out One Evening

By W.H. Auden (1907 - 1973)

I'll love you, dear, I'll love you

Till China and Africa meet,

And the river jumps over the mountain

And the salmon sing in the street.



CONCLUSION

I hope you've enjoyed this fifth module. In this module we have looked at devices used to enhance rhythm, and common types of repetition including anaphora, epistrophe, mesodiplosis, antistasis and symploce. We also looked at parallel structure, assonance and consonance, as well as devices that enhance mood including alliteration, onomatopoeia and hyperbole.

MODULE 6

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