Some of the tools that you can use when revising
for sound include assonance, alliteration, meter, and rhyme. Read your
poem aloud again and again as you alter your poem word-by-word to create
the sound that complements your message.
Here's a cool poem to read aloud and think about as you revise the
sound of your own work. Catherine K actually created this poem aloud
without writing any of it down. She says, "I didn't use any paper
until the bulk of it was finished. This helped to keep me focused on
the sounds of the poem and the way that it felt on my tongue as opposed
to the way that it looked on paper. It was sort of a creative experiment
for me."
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Example
Read Me Aloud
I will not sit placidly on your eyes
Skipped and skimmed over ink that dries
Lifelessly on paper and lies
Trapped between sheets when skies
Should be my cage
Your mouth my page.
I want to slip between your teeth
Feel the humid heat
Of breath hissing and
Consonants cutting,
Vowels bleeding flavor onto me.
My sounds lap languidly at your lips
A taste instantly brilliant that slips
Into memory and fits
Perfectly under your tongue
Or behind the tips of your teeth
Or in your lungs.
So if you could I would have you
Just inhale some air and
Read me aloud.
Free me
To sing out
The way it's meant to be,
For I do not live imprisoned in print
But in your ears and sounds and mouth.
— Catherine K, GA, Scholastic Art & Writing Gold
Award |
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