 | |
Introduction to Poetry | | |
 Use of sound
The 26 letters of the English language - 5 vowels and 21 consonants - can be used to describe
all of the sounds which a speaker of English
can create. This sound quality is particularly important to poets because of the compressed form of
expression that we find in poetry and the
fact that at least some poems are designed to be read aloud, therefore emphasising the sound quality
of the words. This is very much the
case in terms of this poem where the words have been very carefully selected for their sound quality.
In English we also have what are known
as 'long' vowels and 'short' vowels. So, for example, the same letter can have very different sounds
in different words. For example the 'i' in
'bit' is a short vowel, while the 'i' in 'bite' is long.
Many of the sounds used in this poem - the repeated 's' and 'h' sounds for example - are soft
and peaceful but these contrast with the deep
heavy sounds in 'dull' and 'drone' and the clipped precise sounds in 'poised' and 'pressed'. The production
of speech and the sounds we
make is very complex and more information on this can be found by following the link below.
Click here for further information on vowel sounds in English
| 
