z

Young Writers Society


Let's talk about poetry.



User avatar
542 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 41664
Reviews: 542
Wed Dec 16, 2020 2:22 am
View Likes
Liminality says...



silented1 wrote:One of the things I think that I should learn is how the sounds of words flow together when writing a poem to help control the impact of lines as they speed up or slow down to make the information more or less readily available. That's close to why I want to learn it.

What's something you want to learn? Maybe we could share books that have helped us learn to write.


Oh I love using sound-related techniques in poetry! I think alliterative effects are the most flexible when it comes to changing the impact of a line. If you use alliteration with harsher consonants, you tend to get a harsher impact:

breaking the back of a bone-brick wall


Alliteration combined with sibilance (that is, any hissing consonant like 's' and 'sh' in English) gives a different effect, maybe slowing down or making a creepy atmosphere:

silence in the sirens' sorrowful sea

Can't think of any books myself at the moment, but articles on Poetry Foundation are a good source outside of YWS to start with. There's also a great section on assonance (another sound technique!) in this Knowledge Base entry: Kiss My Assonance - 5 ways to improve your poetry

I'm also interested in improving the rhythm in my poetry this year, so it's great to review all those resources I was looking at when I first started out~
she/her

.
Have you met my friend, The Story Review Template?
  








We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
— T.S. Eliot