Staccato versus Melodic

A lot of times I will --if I'm alone usually. I think it depends on the piece I'm writing. Sometimes I like sounds to pop in staccato and sometimes a smooth roll is nice. Other times that's not the purpose of the piece and it wouldn't add anything to it doing that. Sometimes the music in the piece is the color or lack of color.
If the piece tends to have a rhythm in it, and I'm editting, I do try to find a pleasing cadence in it.

Bobbi

The aural component of poetry is very important to me--though you might not guess so by reading some of it. The reading of it aloud is as important as words, forms, and ideas. Without it, it isn't poetry to me.

I'll go a step beyond Dirk and say the "aural" component is essential to "Poetry".

The trick is, that it is not (and should not be) isolated, but must be integrated with all the other elements of the Poem itself, which is why I often say that the "Form" of each of my poems, (including it's "aural" component), depends on the nature of the Poem's intent.

Morover, though it is common for most poets to concentrate on Image, Metaphore, Similie, Symbolism, Allusion Paradox, Irony and the like to build their poems, too few modern Poet's are aware of the extent to which, assonance, consonance, onomatopea, alliteration, rythem and meter and groupings of sounds can CONTROL the pace and tone of a Poems and thus modify and/or enhance those figures of speech, and the overall meaning, and appeal of the message conveyed.

Never forget, that a "True" Poem is the sum of many parts working together to one end or purpose.

Write On,

Jim Hoye, (JRH)

Yes.

Usually, for me, the key right-sounding words come out at first; it's fitting the other words around them that comes later. If the editing makes a right-sounding word feel out of place, I have to consider that my editing has gone too far.

Good topic, Kevin -- and I'm not surprised it's come from you. Your poems are full-contact tapestries, and your word choice is impeccable.

Yes, I definately consider sound. But one thing I've learned is that the pleasure of sound is subjective. I prefer sound to be subtle, and usually edit to get rid of any obviousness, so there's rarely exact rhyme or end-line rhyme in my poems. I pay more attention to stresses than I do syllables --how many are in a given line and I edit to make the stresses somewhat even between the lines. Like I said, it's all preference -- some love jazz and others love classical.

But it doesn't always work to go on sounds because even in the States there's different dialects and pronounciations so some things work to a writer, but not to someone unfamiliar with their method of speech. It can effect rhythm, too.

Hi Peony,

Sound will always effect the sense of what one is trying to say, whether by intent or not, but, in understanding that, it becomes a tool that can be used by the poet, to create the mood and rythems necessary to promote meaning.

If Sound conflicts, it's normally because the Poet does not understand how Sound and Sense interact, not because the Poet's natural dialect differs from that of the reader, (whether it does or not)

Many texts including "Sound and Sense" by Lawrence Perrine, (which was the first Poetry text I studied in college in the 60s and is now in it's 11th Edition.) and "The Poet And The Poem" and "The Poet's Handbook" by Judson Jerome, the former of which is on line in it's original, (unrevised) version at
http://www.poetrycritic.com/poetry_criticism_service.thepoetandthepoem.html go to great lengths to examine how Sound and Sense interact to create meaning and are valuable tools in understanding how they can be used to support each other.

It's by controlling those tools at our disposal that we become better Poets.

Jim Hoye (JRH)