English Literature Study Program

Even Semester 2024

Universitas Negeri Semarang
Today’s lesson discusses sound and meaning as the
major elements in poetry. Sound deals with audio
components that we can capture from each word or
image used in a poem. While meaning corresponds
with any implied or explicit idea suggested by any
word or image and the whole part of the poem. Next,
the topic is about meter and rhythm that also deal
with sonic elements in the poem. The latter two
terms also refer to the way one needs to give accent
and non-accent to each word/image in the poem.
By the end of the course, students are expected to be able:
1.To understand the concepts of sound and meaning in
poetry.
2.To differentiate the different concepts between sound and
meaning.
3.To identify sound and meaning in a poem.

4.To understand the concepts of meter and rhythm.

5.To differentiate the difference between meter and rhythm.

6.To scan the poem by giving correct stressed and unstressed

marks to the poem and to identify its metrical pattern.
 Rhythm and sound in poetry are basic
elements that produce “the music of poetry.”
 The music has two functions: it creates joys

in itself and it can also “reinforce meaning

and intensify the communication.”
 The main function of poetry is “to convey not

sounds but meaning or experience through

sounds” (Perrine & Arp, 197).
There are at least four ways how the poet “reinforces
meaning through sound”:
1.The poet “can choose words whose sound in some degree
suggests their meaning.” In a narrow sense, this category is
named onomatopoeia or “the use of words which sound like
what they mean”, such as the verbs “hiss, snap, bang,
clang, clank, boom.”
2.The poet “can choose sounds and group them so that the
effect is smooth and pleasant sounding
(euphony/euphonious) or rough and harsh sounding
(cacophony/cacophonous). The “vowels are in general more
pleasing than the consonants since the former are musical
tones, while the latter are merely noises.”
 One calls these consonants as sound color.
Some of these consonants include liquids
such as l, m, n, and r; plosives such as b, d,
g, k, p, and t that are harsher and sharper
in their effect; velars such as k, g, c;
voiceless dentals such as f and th; voiceless
sibilants such as s, sh, ch; resonance such
as m, n, ng, z, zh; sonorants such as l, r, y,
w, m, and n.
3.The poet can “control the speed and movement of
the lines by the choice and use of meter, by the
choice and arrangement of vowel and consonant
sounds, and by the disposition of pauses.”
4. The poet can “control both sound and meter in such
a way as to emphasize words that are important in
meaning.” One can do this by “highlighting words
through alliteration, assonance, consonance, or rhyme;
by placing them before a pause; by skillfully placing
or displacing them in the metrical scheme.”
 Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant
sounds, such as in “tree trunk”, “cape cod”, “deer &
dove”, “barn & beam”, “flip flop”, “goose & gecko”,
“kale & koala”.
 Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds,

especially in the middle syllables of words, such as in

“sweet beet”, “green beans”, “soft croft”, “rat-
catcher”, “backpack”, “tin bins”, “clear deer”, “red
hat”, “red bag”, “jug & buck”.
 Consonance is the repetition of final consonant
sounds, such as in “bright light”, “dock & rock”,
“clank & tank”, “flip flop”, “ding dong”, “criss-cross”,
“backpack”.
 Rime is the repetition of the accented vowel sound

and all succeeding sounds. It is called masculine

rime when the rime sounds involve only one
syllable, such as in “fat cat”, “port & fort”, “rap
cap”, “fish & wish”.
 It is called feminine rime when the rime sounds
involve two or more syllables, such as in “purple &
buckle”, “subway & highway”, “blossom &
awesome”.
 It is called internal rime when one or more riming

words are within the line and as end rime when the
riming words are at the ends of lines.
 Approximate rimes (slant rimes) include words with

any kind of sound similarity, from close to fairly

remote (Perrine & Arp 1992, 164-165).
 In every word of more than one syllable, one syllable
is accented or stressed, which means to give it more
prominence in pronunciation than another/others.
 The word ‘rhythm’ means ‘any wavelike recurrence
of motion or sound.’ In spoken language, this means
‘the natural rise and fall of language.’
 All languages are rhythmical since they use ‘some
alternation between accented and unaccented
syllables’ (Perrine & Arp, 176).
 In some languages, the rhythm might be hidden and
unpatterned that one cannot be aware of it.
 In other languages, the rhythm is clearly expressed
that one may be ‘temped to tap his/her foot to it.’
 The word “meter” is derived from a word that means
“measure.” In measuring syllables, one must use a unit
of measurement. For measuring time, one uses
second, the minute, and the hour. For measuring
verse, one uses the foot, the line, and the stanza (ibid.,
176-177).
 Meter is ‘the kind of rhythm one can tap his/her foot
to.’
 In metrical language, the accents are ‘arranged to

occur at apparently equal intervals of time, and it is

this interval we mark off with the tap of our foot.’
 The basic metrical unit is called the “foot”, which

consists of one accented syllable followed by one or

two unaccented syllables. A vertical bar indicates
the division between feet (ibid., 176-177).
 Metrical language is called ‘verse’; while, nonmetrical
language is called ‘prose’.
 Not all poetry is ‘metrical, nor is all metrical language
poetry.’
 Verse and poetry are ‘not synonymous terms.’
 Scansion is a process in describing the rhythmical quality
of a poem by giving stressed and unstressed marks.
(verb: to scan)
 Giving stressed and unstressed marks depends on ‘its
degree of accent relative to the syllables on either side
of it’ (ibid., 182).
Name of Foot Name of Meter
Iamb: the sun Iambic
Trochee: purple Trochaic
Anapest: in a barn Anapestic
Dactyl: wonderful Dactylic
Spondee: jump up (Spondaic)
Monosyllabic foot: bliss
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Somewhere or other there must surely be
The face not seen, the voice not heard,
The heart that not yet—never yet—ah me!
Made answer to my word.

Somewhere or other, may be near or far;

Past land and sea, clean out of sight;
Beyond the wandering moon, beyond the star
That tracks her night by night.

Somewhere or other, may be far or near;

With just a wall, a hedge, between;
With just the last leaves of the dying year
Fallen on a turf grown green.
Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.

No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop—only the name
And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang

Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
Silver bark of beech, and sallow
Bark of yellow birch and yellow
Twig of willow.

Stripe of green in moosewood maple,

Color seen in leaf of apple,
Bark of popple.

Wood of popple pale as moonbeam,

Wood of oak for yoke and barn-beam,
Wood of hornbeam.
Silver bark of beech, and hollow
Stem of elder, tall and yellow
Twig of willow.
The axe rings in the wood,
And the children come,
Laughing and wet from the river;
And all goes on as it should.
I hear the murmur and hum
Of their morning forever.

The water ripples and slaps

The white boat at the dock;
The fire crackles and snaps.
The little noise of the clock
Goes on and on in my heart,
Of my heart parcel and part.
Before man came to blow it right
The wind once blew itself untaught,
And did its loudest day and night
In any rough place where it caught.

Man came to tell it what was wrong:

It hadn’t found the place to blow;
It blew too hard—the aim was song.
And listen—how it ought to go!
He took a little in his mouth,
And held it long enough for north
To be converted into south,
And then by measure blew it forth.

By measure. It was word and note,

The wind the wind had meant to be—
A little through the lips and throat.
The aim was song—the wind could see.
1. Choose one of the poems and scan the first and
second stanza. What metrical feet can you find in
each line? (Submit only your scansion of the poem)
2. Who speaks in the poem? What subject does the
narrator convey to his/her readers?
3. Write about its imageries. What image does it appeal
to what sense?
4. Write about its figurative language. Give some
examples. How does the use of figurative language
help to highlight the subject and to reinforce the
meaning?
5. Choose one of the poems above and scan the first
and second stanza by giving stressed and
unstressed marks to each syllable in each line.
Identify the rhythm and metrical pattern of the
poem (iambic tetrameter, trochaic pentameter, etc.)
6. By focusing on the poem, identify its sound
devices. List all instances of alliteration, assonance,
consonance, half-rime, internal rime, and word
repetition.