SOUND DEVICES

Poets use a number of sound devices to achieve a musical quality.

RHYTHM

Rhythm is the pattern created by the stressed and unstressed syllables of words in sequence. A controlled pattern of rhythm is called meter.

RHYME

Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar sounds in stressed syllables. A pattern of end rhymes is called a rhyme scheme. Free verse has no set meter or rhyme scheme.

repetition of sounds

Alliteration is the repetition of the initial consonant sounds of words, as in the phrase “dark days .” Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words, as in the phrase “child of silence .” Consonance is the repetition of consonants within nearby words in which the separating vowels differ, as in the phrase “live and love .”

REPETITION

Repetition is the use of any language element more than once.

Poets use these different ways to create the way a poem SOUNDS:

rhythm rhyme alliteration repetition