Choose your words for how they sound—not just what they mean.
Assonance, consonance, alliteration, internal rhyme—they’re often called “sound effects,” and they are among the most basic and essential tools that all poets should know how to use. This workshop will focus on how certain vowel or consonant sounds can be used to evoke or underscore emotion in a poem, and how sound effects can help you convey your poem’s “message” in a subtle, convincing way.
Live video conference: This workshop will be held via our online video conferencing platform, Zoom. You can view brief tutorials on using the platform here. On the start date or the day before, participants will receive an email with login info (please check your spam if you don’t see it).
In this workshop you’ll learn:
- How certain sounds are linked to human emotions
- How to use assonance, consonance, alliteration, internal rhyme, and other sound effects to underscore meaning in a poem
- The role that repetition–of a sound, a word, or a phrase–can play
- Contemporary poets who use sound to make their poems memorable”
Time requirements
- No time required outside of class.
Materials
- All reading materials will be provided.
Who should take this workshop?
- Even experienced poets often overlook the crucial role that sound can play. This workshop will benefit newcomers to poetry as well as those who have been writing it for years.
If you need an accommodation for this workshop, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.