Sound Effects In English Poetry

Poetry appeals to the mind and arouses feeling. According to one poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, poetry is "to be heard for its own sake and interest even over and above its interest of meaning". The effect of a poem consists in much more than simply a message. By its musical qualities, by its suggestions, it can work on the reader's unconsciousness.So poetry is, almost, a vocal art, dependent on the human voice to become its full self. A poem will not achieve its full meaning when it merely exists on a page. Sometimes sound in poems provides special effects, like a musical score behind a film, getting us into awareness of the mood created by the sound. Often sound and meaning go hand in hand. Those who enjoy reading poetry to themselves cultivate the faculty of hearing it imaginatively, because the pattern of sound and the rhythmical movement and melody of the language are as essential to the poet's design as the meaning of words. The poet, unlike the person who uses language to convey only information, chooses words for sound as well as for meaning, and uses the sound as a means of reinforcing meaning.The act of communication involved in reading poetry is like communication involved in receiving a messege by radio. Two factors are involved: a transmitting station and a receiving set. The ultimate purpose of the thesis is to find out how onomatopoeic words, pace, rhythm , rhyme, the length of vowels and the combination of consonant sounds contribute to the meaning of poems and help readers increase sensitivity as a receiving set when appreciating poems. It is hoped that the thesis can help them analyze how certain effects are achieved and see how sound is adapted to thought.