Lesson 2: Sound Devices – Rhyme, Rhythm, and Alliteration

🟦 Introduction

Why do some poems stick in your head after just one reading? It’s often because of sound devices—tools poets use to make language musical, memorable, and meaningful. These devices don’t just make poems sound nice; they also help express emotions, highlight ideas, and create structure. In this lesson, you’ll explore rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration—three powerful sound devices tested in the WASSCE.

🟩 Key Concepts and Explanations

1. What Are Sound Devices?

Sound devices are literary techniques that use the sound of words to enhance meaning and effect. They include:

• Rhyme – for pattern and unity

• Rhythm – for flow and pace

• Alliteration – for emphasis and sound effect

🎧 Poets are like musicians—using sound to create feeling and structure.

2. Rhyme

Definition: Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds, especially at the ends of lines in poems.

Types of Rhyme:

Rhyme Scheme:

A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyme in a poem, labeled with letters:

Example: Twinkle, twinkle, little star (A)
How I wonder what you are (A)
Up above the world so high (B)
Like a diamond in the sky (B)
→ Rhyme scheme: AABB

3. Rhythm

Definition: Rhythm is the beat of a poem created by stressed and unstressed syllables.

Key Concepts:

• Syllable = a single sound unit (e.g., beau-ti-ful = 3 syllables)

• Stressed (´) = said louder/stronger

• Unstressed (˘) = said softer/quieter

Common Rhythmic Units (Meters):

🎵 A regular rhythm gives a poem a musical flow, like a song or a chant.

4. Alliteration

Definition: The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words.

Examples:

• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

• The silent sea slid softly to shore.

Functions of Alliteration:

• Grabs attention

• Adds musicality

• Emphasizes specific ideas or moods

🧠 Alliteration makes lines easier to remember and more fun to read aloud.

🧭 Step-by-Step Sample Analysis

Excerpt: The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free.

Analysis:

• Rhyme: “blew” and “flew” (end rhyme)

• Alliteration: Repetition of “f” and “b” sounds (fair/furrow/flew/followed/blew)

• Rhythm: Smooth, flowing — reflects the movement of a ship or sea

🟨 Practice Exercises

Exercise A: Identify Sound Devices

Read the line:
She sells seashells by the seashore.

1. What sound device is used?

2. What effect does it create?

✅ Answers:

1. Alliteration – repetition of the “s” sound

2. Creates a smooth, flowing effect like sea waves; also makes the line catchy

Exercise B: Label the Rhyme Scheme

Poem: The moon was bright and full of glow (A)
It cast a light on hills below (A)
The wolves began to howl with pride (B)
Their silver eyes too hard to hide (B)

✅ Answer: Rhyme scheme = AABB

Exercise C: Mark the Rhythm

Line:
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

Mark the stressed (´) and unstressed (˘) syllables.

✅ Answer:
˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

→ Iambic meter

🔁 Recap

Here’s what we’ve covered:

• Rhyme adds pattern and unity to poems (end rhyme, internal rhyme, slant rhyme)

• Rhythm creates beat and pace using stressed/unstressed syllables

• Alliteration uses repeated consonant sounds to emphasize and enhance musicality

• Sound devices make poems memorable, emotive, and expressive

🪞 Reflection Prompt

Find your favorite short poem or verse. Identify:

• One example of rhyme

• One line that has a noticeable rhythm

• One instance of alliteration

Write 3–5 sentences explaining how these sound devices affect the feel or message of the poem.