The Sound of Words: An Introduction to Poetry

Background/Content Knowledge

Poetry is a literary form characterized by a strong sense of rhythm and meter and emphasis on the interaction between sound and sense. The study of poetic technique is called prosody.¹³ Elements in poetry easily transferred into public speaking are rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. Rhythm, a musical quality produced by the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables, is one of the building blocks of poetry. Writers also create rhythm by repeating words and phrases or even by repeating whole lines and sentences, as Walt Whitman does in the excerpt below of "Song of Myself": ¹⁴

I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice, I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or following, Sounds of the city and sounds out of the city, sounds of the day and night.¹⁵

Walt Whitman builds his idea of rhyme and repetition, moving it from the sound he loves, to the human voice, to the sounds of the city. He goes from specific to general. The use of rhyme, rhythm and repetition helps audiences enter into a speech by anticipating its structure and sometimes surprising them through variation. Applying rhythm to public speaking does not always come naturally to everyone. Some have to study and rehearse this technique to be successful, but it can be done. Applying rhythm to speech generates emotion. It's a rhetorical device that when used makes the speaker sound eloquent. Presenters use rhythm to gain the trust of their audience. The audience is so mesmerized with the movement of the speech until they are not really focusing on what is being said, or they take it in along with that movement. This type of speaking is popular among pastors when delivering a sermon to their congregation. Effective speaking involves accenting what is said through how it is said, and inviting the audience into the speech by building in expectation and surprise; with the idea being that a more effective speech is a clear, expressive, and dynamic speech.

Rhyme is another effective strategy that can be easily applied to prose. My students are very familiar with rhyme because it is used quite often among songwriters of the music they listen to. Rhyme is the similarity of sound in the last syllable. Reverend Jesse Jackson uses this method regularly when he is speaking publicly. Langston Hughes illustrates rhyme in the excerpt I have provided below of the poem "Words Like Freedom":

Words Like Freedom

There are words like Freedom Sweet and wonderful to say. On my heartstrings freedom sings All day everyday.¹⁶

In the complete poem Langston Hughes is expressing his feelings about freedom and liberty. He is using rhyme throughout the poem. The rhymes used in this poem add movement and expression which can be effective when giving a speech to capture the attention of your audience. Rhymes appeal to people of all ages; they are fun and playful. The melodies and tempos of them are energetic and joyous. Poems that rhyme relay a message through the music of the spoken word. Poets use rhyme as a tool to show the humor in the message they are trying to convey. Traditional poems are written in rhyme to help add a musical element to a reading. A rhyming poem brings out the joy that can be had in appreciating the music in words.¹⁷

Repetition is another poetic element that should be utilized effectively in public speaking. Words, sounds, phrases, lines, are elements of syntax and may repeat within a poem. Alliteration is a form of repetition. Alliteration is when sounds are repeated in initial stressed syllables. If used effectively it creates a connection or contrast between ideas. Richard Wilbur provides a good illustration of how alliteration is used in his poem, "Junk":

Junk:

    An axe angles
    from my neighbor's ashcan;
    It is hell's handiwork,
    the wood not hickory,
    The flow of the grain
    not faithfully followed.
    The shivered shaft
    rises from a shellheap
    Of plastic playthings,
    paper plates,18
  

Alliteration is being used in lines 1-10. He is repeating sounds. For example in lines 1 and 2 the short a sound is being stressed in the words an, axe, angles and ashcan, and in lines 9 and 10 the p and pl sounds are being stressed. Richard Wilbur is having fun with sound in this poem. It adds a sense of humor to it by using tongue twister-like techniques. Alliteration is used quite often in poetry and is becoming very popular in public speaking. It tends to catch your eye and ear. It can add a mild sense of humor to your speech which can capture the attention of your audience. Alliteration is an ancient practice in Anglo-Saxon poetry, but is now being used as part of the African-American expressive culture as well.

Sound is so important in public speaking because it adds creativity to your presentation and brings it to life. Speakers use a variety of poetic techniques to get our attention. For example, they may use onomatopoeia which is very popular in poetry. Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it represents. Such devices bring out the full flavor of words. Comparison and association are sometimes strengthened by syllables which imitate or reproduce the sounds they describe. When this occurs, it is called onomatopoeia (a Greek word meaning "name-making "), for the sounds literally make the meaning in such words as "buzz," "crash," "whirr," "clang" "hiss," "purr," "squeak," "mumble," "hush," "boom." Edgar Allan Poe lets us hear the different kinds of sounds made by different types of bells in his famous poem, "The Bells." His choice of the right word gives us the right sound when he speaks of "jingling" and "tingling" bells.¹⁹

"The Bells"

    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.20
  

Sound devices, also known as "musical devices" make poetry a special art form. The use of these devices enrich poetry and makes language sound beautiful. In addition to sound, I also focus on vocal delivery with my students by teaching them about the use of volume, tone, rate, variety and articulation. Volume refers to how loud or soft your voice is as you deliver a speech. Some speakers are not loud enough, while others are too loud. A guiding rule of volume: be loud enough so everyone in your audience can hear you, but not so loud as to drive away the listener positioned closest to you.²¹ A level that is too soft may give the impression that the speaker is hesitant, fearful, or unprepared. The intensity of a vocal sound reveals something about a speaker's feelings. In ordinary conversation, in an interview situation, or in public, it is important to adjust your volume level to your listeners.²² In addition students will learn about tone. They will learn how to add warmth, color, intensity and enthusiasm to their voices by adjusting their pitch levels. This is important because a monotone voice would cause the audience to lose interest in what is being said. Students will be taught how to drop their pitch in some places and raise it in others. Rate refers to the speed in which one speaks. Students will master a steady pace in their presentation skills. They will practice inflection which helps with variety of speech—raising or lowering their pitch to emphasize certain words or expressions. In addition, students will learn how to project their voices; to speak in a manner where they can be heard throughout the entire room. This unit also focuses on articulation, which refers to the crispness or clarity of one's spoken words. It is important that my students articulate their vowels and consonants sounds clearly and distinctly, so their audience is able to distinguish what is being said. Articulation problems are most common when nervousness increases a speaker's rate of delivery. This unit will address pronunciation which refers to the correctness in the way you say words. Articulation and pronunciation are both highly stressed in poetry. Poets clearly enunciate their words and they place emphasis on words they want to stand out. This is another transferable technique that can be used in Public Speaking. In my unit I teach students about common errors to avoid when presenting. They are:

• Adding vowel sounds—"ath-a-lete" for "athlete""
• Omitting vowel sounds—"natcherly" for "naturally" and "pome" for "poem"
• Substituting vowel sounds—"git" for "get" and "crick" for "creek""
• Adding consonant sounds—"sta-stis-tics" for "statistics""
• Omitting consonants—"gover-ment" for "government""
• Reversing consonants—"liberry" for "library," "hundered" for "hundred" andd
• "chilren" for "children"
• Nasaling nonnasal sounds—"kaow" for "cow" and "touwn" for "town""
• Substituting consonants—"Babtist" for "Baptist," "wide" for "white," "assessory"
• for "accessory," and "congradulations" for "congratulations"
• Slurring sounds—"doncha" for "don't you," "whajado" for "what did you do?' andd
• "gunna" for "going to"