highly recommended
Feb. 15th, 2004 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheIf you're serious about poetry, peruse Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry. Therein lies some great information:
Poets may repeat any unit of sound from the smallest to the largest. They may repeat individual vowel and consonant sounds, whole syllables, words, phrases, lines, or groups of lines. In each instance, in a good poem, the repetition will serve several purposes: it will please the ear, it will emphasize the words in which the repetition occurs, and it will give structure to the poem (p. 165).
Both alliteration and rime, especially feminine rime, become humorous or silly if used excessively or unskillfully. If the intention is humorous, the result is delightful; if not, fatal. [...] Used skillfully and judiciously, however, musical devices provide a palpable and delicate pressure to the ear and, even more important, add dimension to meaning (p. 170).
In third- and fourth-rate poetry, sound and rhythm sometimes distract attention from sense. In first-rate poetry the sound exists not for its own sake nor for mere decoration, but as a medium of meaning. Its function is to support the leading player, not to steal the scene (p. 201).
Vowels are in general more pleasing than consonants, for vowels are musical tones, whereas consonants are merely noises. . . . Of the consonants, some are fairly mellifluous, such as the 'liquids,' l, m, n, and r; the soft v and f; the semivowels w and y; and such combinations as th and wh. Others, such as the 'plosives,' b, d, g, k, p, and t, are harsher and sharper in their effect. These differences in sound are the poet's materials (p. 204).
[Another] way in which a poet can reinforce meaning through sound is by controlling 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. In meter the unaccented syllables usually go faster than the accented syllables; hence the triple meters are swifter than the duple. [...] This pace will also be affected by the vowel lengths and by whether the sounds are easily run together. The long vowels take longer to pronounce than the short ones. Some words are easily run together, while others demand that the position of the mouth be re-formed before the next word is uttered (p. 205).
Poets may repeat any unit of sound from the smallest to the largest. They may repeat individual vowel and consonant sounds, whole syllables, words, phrases, lines, or groups of lines. In each instance, in a good poem, the repetition will serve several purposes: it will please the ear, it will emphasize the words in which the repetition occurs, and it will give structure to the poem (p. 165).
Both alliteration and rime, especially feminine rime, become humorous or silly if used excessively or unskillfully. If the intention is humorous, the result is delightful; if not, fatal. [...] Used skillfully and judiciously, however, musical devices provide a palpable and delicate pressure to the ear and, even more important, add dimension to meaning (p. 170).
In third- and fourth-rate poetry, sound and rhythm sometimes distract attention from sense. In first-rate poetry the sound exists not for its own sake nor for mere decoration, but as a medium of meaning. Its function is to support the leading player, not to steal the scene (p. 201).
Vowels are in general more pleasing than consonants, for vowels are musical tones, whereas consonants are merely noises. . . . Of the consonants, some are fairly mellifluous, such as the 'liquids,' l, m, n, and r; the soft v and f; the semivowels w and y; and such combinations as th and wh. Others, such as the 'plosives,' b, d, g, k, p, and t, are harsher and sharper in their effect. These differences in sound are the poet's materials (p. 204).
[Another] way in which a poet can reinforce meaning through sound is by controlling 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. In meter the unaccented syllables usually go faster than the accented syllables; hence the triple meters are swifter than the duple. [...] This pace will also be affected by the vowel lengths and by whether the sounds are easily run together. The long vowels take longer to pronounce than the short ones. Some words are easily run together, while others demand that the position of the mouth be re-formed before the next word is uttered (p. 205).
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-15 06:34 pm (UTC)Pinsky's written on this, which is a good sign.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-15 06:39 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-15 07:08 pm (UTC)Pinsky has a book that approaches it from the right angle, although it might be too introductory. It's cheap, anyway.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-15 07:29 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-15 08:08 pm (UTC)Quite!
My gripe is that in most contexts of creativity. . tonality in music, color in painting, light in sculpture, etc. . technique evolved through an intuitive state into one of formalization, where there's a certain vocabulary of the art, but I have trouble finding an equivalent in the phonetics of poetry. Then again, formalization isn't the be-all, so maybe it's for the best.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-15 08:12 pm (UTC)