Musical Devices “music” in poetry Similarity of sounds Verbal music in poetry enables a poet to do more than communicate mere information

Musical Devices Poetry obviously makes a greater use of the “music” of language than does language that is not poetry The poet, unlike the person who uses language to convey only information, chooses words for sound as well as for meaning. The poet uses sound as a means of reinforcing meaning.

Music in poetry Edgar Allan Poe describes poetry as “music….combined with a pleasurable idea.’ The poet achieves musical quality in two broad ways: (1) by the choice and arrangement of sounds and (2) by the arrangement of accents.

Repetition An essential element in all music is repetition. All art consists of giving structure to two elements: repetition and variation Our love of art, then, is rooted in human psychology. We like the familiar, we like variety, but we like them combined.

Repetition The poet likewise repeats certain sounds in certain combinations and arrangements, and thus adds musical meaning to verse. Much of the appeal of a poem consists in the use of rime – the repetition of sound for example “turtle” and “fertile”

Repetition Poets may repeat any unit of sound from the smallest to the largest. Repeating individual vowel and consonant sounds, whole syllables, words, phrases, lines, or groups of lines.

Purposes of Repetition Please our ears Emphasize the words in which the repetition occurs Give structure to the poem

Repetition of sounds Alliteration Assonance Onomatopoeia rhyme