Sounds & Rhymes, Rhymes and Sounds

In literature, writers often focus on the sense of sound to help readers understand and see details of an object or an event occuring in the story, such as the roar of raging ocean tides. The most common forms of communicating sounds are onomatopoeia, rhyme schemes, internal and end rhymes, assonance, and alliteration. With these literary devices, a narrator may also appeal to the audience's emotions towards calm, smooth sounds and harsh, screeching, abrupt sounds. These connections are used to relate to a characteristic of an object, event, or theme, or to bring to the audience's attention a certain phrase or topic. In Frost's poem "Out, Out-", the snarling of the buzz-saw depicts a vivid, harsh sounding, predatory machine. Beyond depicting a vivid imagery, the word establishes the personification of the buzz-saw. In Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", to demonstrate his sinister tone, the Ghost of Hamlet's father uses alliteration and assonance, "Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres". The Ghost talks in a sinister tone to portray to the audience and Hamlet the cruelty and fright the afterlife holds for the dead.