Sound Devices

You may have heard or read poems that sound almost like songs. Poetry gets many of its musical qualities from sound devices. Sound devices can also suggest meaning or add emphasis. Three commonly used sound devices are
    
    Repetition, or the use of a word, phrase, or line several times. (Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?)
    Onomatopoeia, or the use of words that sound like their meanings. (Boom, buzz, splash, meow)
    Alliteration, or the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words. (She sells sea shells by the sea shore.)

A poet might use these devices to draw attention to a particular line or idea.
 
Instructions: Fold a sheet of paper into three sections. As you read "Windshield Wiper" and "Night Journey," record examples of those devices on a chart like the one below. Answer questions 1-6 at the bottom of the page. When you finish, keep your paper so that we can go over it at the end of the hour. You may go onto coolmath, funbrain, freerice, or poptropica when you finish, but please leave this page open in a separate Internet Explorer window so that you can look back at it when we go over the questions.
    

Repetition

Tissue Paper

Onomatopoeia

Splat

Alliteration

"Macintosh" - "Muddle On"

Windshield Wiper

                        fog smog        fog smog
                    tissue paper        tissue paper
                clear the blear        clear the smear

                        fog more        fog more
                      splat splat        downpour

                rubber scraper        rubber scraper
                        overshoes        macintosh                                                                                        macintosh - raincoat
                    bumbershoot        muddle on                                                                                       bumbershoot - umbrella
                    slosh through        slosh through

                        drying up            drying up
                       sky lighter            sky lighter
                        nearly clear        nearly clear
                              clearing clearing veer
                                    clear here clear

Night Journey

        
        Now as the train bears west,
        Its rhythm rocks the earth,
        And from my Pullman berth
        I stare into the night
        While others take their rest.
        Bridges of iron lace,
        A suddenness of trees,
        A lap of mountain mist
        All cross my line of sight,
        Then a bleak wasted place,
        Ad a lake below my knees.
        Full on my neck I feel
        The straining at a curve:
        My muscles move with steel,
        I wake in every nerve.
        I watch a beacon swing
        From dark to blazing bright;
        We thunder through ravines
        And gullies washed with light.
        Beyond the mountain pass
        Mist deepens on the pane;
        We rush into a rain
        That rattles double glass.
        Wheels shake the roadbed stone,
        The pistons jerk and shove,
        I stay up half the night
        To see the land I love.

Questions

1. Name three things the speaker sees in Night Journey.

2. What are the bridges of iron lace in line 6 of Night Journey?

3. What kinds of weather are described in Windshield Wiper?

4. Take another look at the unusual way in which "Windshield Wiper" is arranged on the page. The spacing in the center of each line mimics the movement of actual windshield wipers. What does it mean when the space disappears at lines 13 and 14?

5. Skim Night Journey and list all the words you can find that convey movement.

6. Look at the chart you filled in as you read. For each poem, which sound device is used more often, repetition, onomatopoeia, or alliteration?