Musical Devices – How to Evoke Emotion

“In a more literal sense, music – a stimulating, moving or pleasing pattern of sounds – is at the
very heart of what we mean by the word “poetry.” – Steve Kowit, author of In the Palm of Your
Hand: the poet’s portable workshop

• Review of musical devices

1. Assonance – Technique of forming a partial rhyme by using identical vowel sounds.
2. Alliteration – The repetition of consonant sounds.
3. Rich Consonance – Words that have the same Consonant sounds but different vowel
sounds between them. For example, root and right.
4. Partial Consonance – Denotes the identity of the final consonant sounds in two or
more words. For example, the words fallen and open share the same en sound at the
end.
5. Anaphora – Designates the repetition of the opening word or phrase in several
successive lines.
• Poem Structure
1. Each phrase has a particular tone and pace. This effect is made with specific
words and their sounds combined. Musical devices are used to accomplish this.
2. A stanza is a verse paragraph, separated from the remainder of the poem by an
additional space. Typically, each stanza relays a different tone or meaning than
the other stanzas in a poem.

Practice the use of Musical Devices

• Cut-up poetry – To allow you to concentrate on the music of the words and phrases you
are using without having to worry about the poem’s subject matter or significance. This
exercise also allows you to take the most mundane and transform it into something
interesting.
1. To begin, take two pages from different sections of a newspaper.
2. With a writing utensil, begin circling phrases or random groups of words from
any one of the newspaper pages.
3. IMPORTANT: Do not focus on the meaning of the phrases you are circling so
much as on their sounds. The meanings should fade to allow the music to become
more apparent.
4. Circle about twenty items.
5. Connect words and phrases that you have circled, adding, where necessary, your
own connective and transitional words and phrases.
 Musical Devices – How to Evoke Emotion

“In a more literal sense, music – a stimulating, moving or pleasing pattern of sounds – is at the
very heart of what we mean by the word “poetry.” – Steve Kowit, author of In the Palm of Your
Hand: the poet’s portable workshop

• As the following poem is read, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What poetic tools did the artist use?
2. Why is the poem constructed in this manner?
3. Did these poetic tools create a mood or feeling in the poem?

I used to rule the world

Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sweep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice

Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

One minute I held the key

Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of sand, pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing

Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword, and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
Once you go there was never, never an honest word
That was when I ruled the world

It was the wicked and wild wind

Blew down the doors to let me in.
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn't believe what I'd become
Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh, who would ever want to be king?