Poetry






















Sounds

Poets sometimes arrange words to evoke particular sounds. In some cases, the sound and the sense of the word are closely related (such as quack or buzz); this is called “onomatopoeia.” “Alliteration” is the repetition of a consonant sound at the beginnings of nearby words, and “assonance” is the repetition of the same vowel sound in nearby words. Both alliteration and assonance help establish relations among words in a line or series of lines. “Consonance” describes an identical consonant sound preceded by a different vowel sound. All these techniques use the sounds of words to evoke subtle feelings in the readers.
 

Click on any of the sound types at the right to reveal an example. To hear the poem read aloud, click the Play button.