Sound + Phonology = Speech Path in action!

What a great chapter on sound! This section on sound
production really struck new feelings about poetry for me. It is obvious that
Mary Oliver is VERY skilled at her craft! I have been familiar with
phonological processes and production for some time (it’s a strange speech
pathology kind of hobby), but have never related my knowledge of these
processes to writing. As I read through this chapter I began to connect the
pieces together to where I could create better and more powerful pieces of
poetry through the lense of phonology. Her clear explanation of semivowels and
mutes and then further examples and analysis of pieces, like Robert Frost’s
poem, gave ideas of how sound can elicit good writing. For many years my
writing has been focused on getting an idea across in a poem, but I have never
considered the use of sound as a medium to getting those ideas across. Oliver
is able to explain the three common devices seen in sound; like, alliteration,
assonance, and consonance, and then is able to dig further into each of those
devices by giving a clear analysis of each type. However, one more important
aspect that could have been more heavily touched on is the use of voiced and
unvoiced sounds. While Oliver did describe the use of mutes, and how they can
become sounded, she failed to give a description of how voiced and unvoiced
constants are used and their effects on a piece of writing. A good way to think
about these voiced/unvoiced constants is to think about where sounds are
produced. For example, the sound /k/ and /g/ are in the same placement; however,
when you produce the /k/ sound you not use air to produce the sound, while with
/g/ you “turn your voice box on” and add voice to that constant. This is also
observed in the /f/ and /v/ sound, which are commonly called fricatives, but
are also examples of voiced vs. unvoiced.

Overall, the way that a piece is structured with these
specific types of devices in mind can help you and your readers get your idea
across. This entire chapter was extremely helpful and I plan to re-read to
fully be able to synthesize my thinking about how I plan to incorporate these
more detailed devices into my poetry and writing.