Literature’s origins came as an auditory form, through verbal storytelling – and even today, it can look very different then simply words on a page. Live readings, audiobooks, screen readers and forms that may not even exist at this moment in time mean that literature can become sonic – though there are still many ways to enhance the written word.
In this article, we’ll be covering some sound devices, which can quickly convey the musical mood of certain types of writing. Whether you are using lyricism in a sing-song, cheerful poem or brash and curt turns of phrase to personalise a character more, sound devices are versatile ways to add to your writing.
Alliteration and sibilance
Alliteration is when a sentence or phrase contains repetition of similar-sounding words: like lizards lying limp licking limestone. Though alliteration is often shown best with the same letters, the phrases can include short conjunctions and also different sounds, as long as they are close enough to sound similar.
Along those lines, sibilance is similar to alliteration in that it also groups words by sound, but for it to be classed as sibilance, they should be ‘hissing or hushing’ sounds. Think about a sluggish silvery sea or swallows swiftly sweeping skywards.
Assonance and consonance
Assonance is a sound device, typically used in poetry, where similar vowel sounds in a sentence or phrase create a rhythmic tone. To explain it simply, the most famous phrase using assonance is ‘the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain’ from the musical My Fair Lady. In this phrase, the ‘in’ repetition happens at the end of the word, however for assonance, it can happen at any point in the word as long as it is in an echoic way.
Consonance is a form of assonance, though it uses (as the name suggests) consonants – any non-vowel sound in the alphabet. An example phrase would be ‘murmuring mummies melted manuka’ with the repetition of the letter ‘m’.
Dissonance and cacophony
Dissonance is a sound device using sounds that aren’t pleasant – but rather, harsh, grating or otherwise disharmonious. It is an intentional choice that often makes verbal phrasing difficult but is used to convey an unpleasant or uncomfortable tone. An example of this is from Shakespeare’s Macbeth – ‘Of all men else I have avoided thee. / But get thee back. My soul is too much charged / With blood of thine already.’
Cacophony is quite similar to dissonance, but is more commonly used to refer to an instance of dissonance. Simples!
Euphony
Euphony refers to the pleasant sound of words in language, particularly used within poetry for a direct way to influence the mood. Rhyming, rhythmic, repetitive and even consonant sounds feature in this form of sound device. Any song lyric can (arguably) be an example of euphony.
Let’s give our voices a rest…
This blog post featured a more in-depth investigation of common sound devices in literature. Spice up your long and lustful poem with some spicy sibilance or carefully craft a short and snappy story with sound to match!
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