A short lecture on beginning aspects of sound is coming. But read a little first, to set the stage.

Poetry is all about sound. Even before it conveys a message or tells a story, a poem should please the ear. After all, if we wanted to just convey a message or tell a story, we would write an essay or short story. But with poems, not only does the sound add a dimension of pleasure, but it is actually part of the meaning.

For example, suppose I wanted to write a poem to portray my pain when my true love left me, and part of it went something like this:

I felt so very sad.
And I was always mad
The pain was so intense.
My feelings were immense.

What's wrong with this? Well, besides being sort of simple-minded, the sound is in conflict with the message. The short lines are too choppy for a sad poem; they're sing-songy and have a childish sound. If the poem went on for many verses, you'd find yourself sort of chanting that 3-beat rhythm (dah-DAH, dah-DAH, dah-DAH). And the rhymes are too obvious and forced, especially "sad" and "mad."

Now if roughly the same ideas were framed with different sounds, the effect would be quite different, though the overall message is the same:

I felt my heart in monumental pain
And hurt let in an uncontrolled anger.
The strength of feeling left me near-insane,
Helpless with an awful sense of danger.

OK, this isn't too much better, but at least I've stretched the lines out so they aren't so choppy. The rhyming lines alternate, instead of coming one right after the other. Using not-quite-rhyme in the second and fourth lines provides a little variation. If I wanted a still better poem, I might work on other aspects of sound, as explained on the next page.

Shortly we'll get to a more detailed discussion of rhythm and rhyme, but let's start with something more basic. Go on for a little about how poets use sound.