The pleasure of words in the mouth

Another class that I am taking this semester is History of the English Language, in which we discuss the different periods of development in our language. At every stage of development there are two factors at work upon the language, one is outer history, and the other is inner history. Inner history details such things as how vowels shifted in use from Old English up until Present Day English. It's interesting to note that the consonants in our language have remained fairly stable and haven't gone through much change. The reason why I mention all of this is because chapter four is a part of the history of our language. I would like to think that I have become more aware of sound in poetry because of the class, History of the English Language. So, reading chapter four was a nice review on sound formation.

After reading the chapter and having sound formation on my mind, I paid closer attention to the words and their sounds when I read the poems. I read "Those Winter Sundays" a few times. With each reading I read slowly, playing with the sounds in my mouth and how I formed them. It's not a very long poem, but I think the poem makes use of many of the sound techniques that were discussed in the chapter. There is alliteration in the poem, and there is assonance as well. Paying close attention to sound opened up another way of reading the poem. The first time I read the poem it was for meaning and emotional content, but then when I went back and reread it was for sound, and how the poems content and form are held together through sound. The sound of the poem is just as stirring as the images that are used.

Like the book mentions, I found a certain pleasure in the way words felt as I read them, which in turn revealed a new aspect to the poems I read. Used effectively in writing, sound has a lot of power, and the right combination of words can influence and move the reader on both concious and unconcious levels. I personally think that the way poets use words and their sounds is exciting, and it makes me want to be more sound concious when I write.

I'm looking forward to our discussion today.