Sound effects

11059For this discussion, please read “The Tyger,” “The Windhover,” “in Just—,” and “Daddy.”

Respond to one of the following sets of questions. Refer to specific passages from the poems in your response.

Read Plath’s “Daddy” aloud. What words and sounds stand out and try to describe their effect? What is the effect of words that are repeated or rhyme in different stanzas? What is the effect of the alliteration in stanza 10?
How does William Blake, in “The Tyger,” use alliteration or assonance to make certain lines stand out? This poem is composed entirely of questions: could you sum up the general question being asked here? Why might Blake have decided to ask such a series of questions rather than one general question?
How does Gerard Manley Hopkins use alliteration and assonance in “The Windhover”? What seems to be his general point or purpose in this poem? How do alliteration, assonance, and other uses of sound contribute to the effects or meanings he seems to be trying to create?
Analyze “in Just—” with an eye on movement. How do certain words, spacings, sounds, and typographical features of the poem suggest a faster pace? What if anything evokes a slowing down? What is the effect of certain spaces, gaps, or line arrangements?
What sounds and other details in “in Just—” suggest childlike levity and play? How do certain words and sounds contribute to that? What, if anything, evokes a more serious tone, something in tension? What role does that tension play in the poem?