English 10 / Unit 5: Poetry: Form, Sound and Meaning
5.6 Sound and Sense
Notes
Sound can echo and strengthen meaning.
- Euphony: smooth, pleasant sounds (soft l, m, n, long vowels) for calm or beauty.
- Cacophony: harsh, clashing sounds (hard k, t, g, clustered consonants) for conflict or ugliness.
- Tennyson's "The Eagle" (1851): "He clasps the crag with crooked hands" repeats a hard k sound that suggests the rough rock and the bird's strong grip.
- Sound devices from English 9 (alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia) should be analyzed for their effect, not just named.
Practice
"Lulled by the low murmur of the summer meadow" mainly uses:
Soft l and m sounds create a smooth, calm effect.
In "He clasps the crag with crooked hands," the repeated hard k sound mainly helps the reader:
The harsh sound mirrors the rugged image.
A poem about a battlefield uses words like "crack," "grind" and "jagged." The sound effect is:
Harsh consonants create cacophony suited to violence.
Ready for more? Take the Unit 5 test.