The mirror., 1916-11-30
YER Sc STUDIE No. 9
Constructive Lessons In Verse.
Sound and Movement
By Beau Esprita


certain sounds or movements. The use of such
words in verse and poetry is called Anomatopoeia.
The word swish" when pronounced aloud. is a
direct imitation of the sound made by any object
propelled rapidly through the air. 'Crackle' imi-
the sound of brittle stiff object when bro
ken moved about. In like manner. such words as
hiss buzz, bang. snap. murmur shreik clang, tick,
all limitations of the sounds for which they
stand and therefore onomatopoetic.
Words such hurry. hustle, swift, dawdle,
onomatopoetic.
The use of onomatopoetic words in verse
sructon and poetry enables the writer to compress
his sentences and yet give vivid pictures of the
scenes and actions of which he tells One word
which directly initiates sound action will make
unnecessary whole sentence that would otherwise
be required to describe it, Baseball writer's, while
probby most of them would be surprized to find
themselves linked with poets and versfers, are
great of onomatopoeia When our favorite
sportwriter says Barry bobbled perfect throw"
fairly the fielder Juggling the ball. be-
cause the word bobble'' is directly initiative of his
actions. And when he says Fan slammed one for
three bases," the word slammed" is directly imita-
tive of both the sound and movement.
There are many such words in the English Ian
guage descriptive of both sound and movement.
In "A Dream Of Fair Women" Tennyson uses
the word plunge" to describe both sound and
movement, in the line:
The white, cold, heavy plunging foam.''
Notice that it requires three words to describe
the qualities of the foam, but only to describe
both the sound and movement
Mathew Arnold has compressed into six words
vivid description of the sea and beach,
Its melancholy, long, Withdrawing roar,
Retreatng.
Milton, describing the escape of Satan from
He'll, in Paradise LOST uses words descriptive of
sound, words descriptive of movement and words
descriptive of both sound and movement, all within
three lines
On sudden open fly
With impetuous recoil and jarring sound
The internal DOORS and on their hinges CRATE
Harsh thunder.
Sudden, impetuous descriptive of move
ment Harsh CRATE. descriptive of sound. JAR
ring is descriptive of both sound and movement.
Two famous examples of onomatopoeia, which,
however, more strictly groupings of descriptive
words than poems. E. A. Poe's The Bells" and
Southey's Cataract OF Lodore'
Hear the sledges with the BELLS
Silver BELLS
What world of merriment their melody fore-tells
How they tnkle, tinke. tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that sprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runc rhyme,
To the Naturalization that musically wells
From the bells. bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, BELLS
From the ngling and the tnkling of the bells.
This whole poem'' is purely descriptive the
first line of each stanza names the kind of bells
heard, and the remainder is onomatopoetc repro
ducton, helped out by descriptive rhythm, and
nances. In this stanza Poe presents sleigh bells,
and able to recognize that they small
bells from the repeated 'ting-ing sounds, and the
dwelling on M and "1n' sounds, all of which are
directly initiative of the sound small bells make
when struck shaken.
In The Cataract of Lodore" Southey is even
more descriptive, while perhaps less poetic:
From it's sources which we'll
In the tarn the fell;
From it's fountains
In the mountains
In rills and in gills;
Through moss and through brake,
1t and it creeps
For while, till it sleeps
In it's own little lake.
Andt thence at denartnr