One reason for poetry's powerful effects is the way poems draw attention to the sounds buried in everyday words. You explored some of these sound effects in this module and studied many examples of how poets add memorable sounds to poems. Use the tabs below to review how poets use sound to make their poems more engaging and more meaningful.

Rhythm Rhyme Repetition

A stout lad who traveled out west
Wore chaps, a large hat, and a vest
As he wrangled the cows
And repeated these vows:
"Of cowboys, I'll soon be the best!"

Question

How would you describe this poem's rhythm?

Answer

The rhythm is even and sounds a little like a waltz beat. The numbers of beats in lines 1, 2, and 5 match, as do the lengths of line 3 and 4.

A stout lad who traveled out west
Wore chaps, a large hat, and a vest
As he wrangled the cows
And repeated these vows:
"Of cowboys, I'll soon be the best!"

Question

How would you describe the rhymes in this poem?

Answer

In lines 1, 2, and 5, the end sounds are the rhyming words west, vest, and best. In lines 3 and 4, the end sounds are the rhyming words cows and vows. This poem is a limerick—a short, often silly poem that always rhymes in just this pattern.

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 . . . .

Question

What repeated sound and word did you notice in these lines?

Answer

The word bells is repeated, and tinkle, a word for the sound the bells, is used three times in a row. The word time is repeated three times, too, like an echo of the bells' music. The bells don't ring just once; they ring and ring. The repeated words imitate that repeated sound.

Rhythm, rhyme, and other forms of repetition are so important in emphasizing a poem's meaning that poets sometimes choose unusual sentence patterns to emphasize sound effects. Most sentences in English have a subject-verb-object or subject-verb-modifier order. However, to create a specific effect, a poet may use inverted syntax, placing either the verb or the object first instead. Inverted syntax gives poets more control over the order of words in a line of poetry.

Read these lines from Emily Dickinson's poem beginning "We grow accustomed to the dark—" in which the speaker describes how people's eyes adjust when they go from a well-lit house onto a dark path. Pay attention to word order.

A moment—We uncertain step
For newness of the night—
Then—fit our Vision to the Dark—
And meet the Road—erect