how simple the line of many titles !

Mary Oliver paints a strong understanding of her grasp of poetic devices and in turn assists the reader in what they may have difficulty grasping. For myself, I find the line to be the most complicated thing to grasp when writing poetry of a specific kind that doesn't randomly rhyme when it feels the necessity or is simply free-verse. She goes into detail on the importance of each line (which to my surprise have their own name and importance to a piece of work) and the use to a piece of prose. Oliver is descriptive in her methods and provides bountiful examples in her explanations with help incredibly when trying to understand the inner mechanics of poetry and its select lines. She provides examples from Shakespeare to Charles Dickinson and points out the things that the reader (and myself especially) had not entirely noticed or fully appreciated.

"No two poems are exactly alike, even though both are written in, say, iambic pentameter rhyming couplets." (Page 56) This is probably what bewildered me the most - the realization that no one poem is the same as another despite being exactly the same in the manner in which it was written. So many poems and works of literary brilliance were all written in the same fashion and while acknowledging line is important have not exactly used it to its extreme purpose while writing my own poetry.

Sound

Oliver's vast amount of knowledge in the English field is revealed in this chapter as she is able to go in depth about the alphabet and how it is crucial for poetic writing. Initially, this chapter seemed to be somewhat repetitive based on the information from the past. For instance, I was already aware of how many phrases could mean the same thing, yet the way they are expressed can convey different attitudes about it. The part that struck me was the talk about the alphabet and her deep analysis of it. Honestly, I have never heard of the alphabet breakdown like that before. It was a whole new revelation to me to think about w and y being added to potential vowels, words that are considered “hard” and “soft”. Unfortunately, I don’t really understand the meaning when a word is said to be “hard” or “soft” and this definitely contributed towards my confusion on the talk about the alphabet. Maybe I missed it…But I don’t think that these concepts were explained effectively for the readers.

While it was hard to follow the “hard” and “soft” talks at times, I still appreciate the examples used by Oliver. That definitely helped enhance the learning experience as the readers could actually see what Oliver was talking about. Using Robert Frost’s poem as an example was a great way to represent the ideas that she was talking about in regards to sound. Sound in poetry is something I personally do not watch out for because I never knew the true important on how it affects the overall voice of the story. I appreciate how Oliver does not establish a sense on superiority throughout this chapter and does not force us to think a certain way. She even says that most poets don’t even care about how many mutes and other devices they use in the poem. This helps show that it isn’t really necessary to check up on it, but, practice will help you ensure that you nail this in your first draft itself.

Woody and Tinny Words

This chapter on the art of phonetics was positively intriguing. It’s something I’ve always noticed about language,how there are words that fit in certain situations better than others because of their sound,the speed and movement through which they move in and out of your ears and the effect they produce as they linger however brief in the crevices of the gray mush in between.

Mary Oliver has obvious poured over these phenomena for quite sometime to have gotten it down to such a science. Typically authors who try to make writing all schiencey n’stuff doesn’t interest me too much but in this case Oliver proves her theory of why “a ‘rock’is not a ‘stone” very thoroughly and in way that is quick to understand.

The alphapbet is composed of textured vowels and consonants that differ from each other like the various brush strokes of a painting. Harsh and soft sounds produce contrasting movement and flow acting as the structure upon which language is draped over,causing it to be curved and smooth or jagged and dynamic. It is clear through our speech how we subconsciously pick certain words that match the situation and achieve the desired effect; as seen through the example of "hush" vs "shut up." In poetry, one is more aware of the importance of particular sounds as to string them along like beads on a necklace. I enjoyed how Ms. Oliver provided Robert Frost's poem and analysis at the end of the chapter as if it was the quiz at the end on a lesson. It pulled everything together even though I'm not quite sure all the specific vowel/consonant gobbledygook actually stuck in my mind.

The basis of this whole chapter reminded me of the Monty Python sketch in which several silly British aristocrats discuss the "woody" vs "tinny" words. It's like really quite funny and some reason a caribou gets shot but I haven't quite figured that part out yet.

Relearning the ABCs

The alphabet was, I thought, a rather simple, elementary concept, but I have been proven incorrect by Mary Oliver's chapter on sound in A Poetry Handbook.

Having the alphabet entirely revolutionized for me in just a few pages was, of course, disconcerting, but after I recovered I was able to apppreciate the clear tone of the book and the relatable examples. I enjoyed the anaylsis of Robert Frost's poem, particularly since it was not suggested that any poet actually takes the time to count the number of mutes and semivowels per line. This chapter, though, is not only applicable to poems, but to our everyday word choice as well. Selecting words or phrases based on the way that they sound is an unconscious decision on the part of poets and speakers alike and I doubt I will ever find myself paying attention to the amount of mutes that I use in one sentence. I do, however, recognize that the various letters and their sounds play an instrumental role in writing fluid poetry that a person would want to listen to. The chapter truly added new ideas to an old concept. Just when you thought you had the alphabet down, everything changes. There are not just vowels and constants, but liquids and aspirates and so on. Even the idea of w as a vowel was new to me - generally considering the vowels as a,e,i,o,u and sometimes y - but after saying some different w words to myself I can see how that is possible

SOUND

Oliver just astounds me on how much she knows on even small things like sound that are inside of the actual poetry itself. I've never really thought of the use of "hard" and "soft" sounds and how “A vowel forms a perfect sound when uttered alone. A consonant cannot be perfectly uttered till joined to a vowel.”

Oliver picks out a good example on the usage of different sounds, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. How Frost uses these soft sounds within and at the end of the lines enables the reader to sense a calmness about them, such as they would if they in fact stopped at this very place that Frost writes about.

As I was reading i wondered if the people who made up the English language were actually thinking of how the sounds of the words would affect whoever was hearing it. If this were so it would be an amazing feat, but i doubt it since the language for the most part (with some latin) originated in Britain in the time of the barbaric Anglo-Saxons. I was also wondering if poets actually thought of every time trying to set the mood with different sounds of words, and again I seriously doubt it.

Mind Blown

No one ever stops and appreciates where our language comes from: the alphabet. The alphabet is one of the first things you learn in school, along with counting and your phone number. The alphabet is the basis for our entire written and spoken communication with each other, so why is it that we sometimes overlook its importance? This question, along with many others like "Why haven't I ever thought or heard of this before" are what came to me while reading the sound chapter.

Never have I had quite an extensive language lesson on letters like I experienced while reading this. Vocabulary words are thrown out- semivowels, onomatopoeia, assonance, consonance, and mute just to name a few. All of these contribute into the making of sound, how the letters come together to form words and what their influence is on a piece of writing. I do think, however, the author may go a tad overboard in some instances; I'm not sure if all poets think about a word's construction as a main part of their poems. However, the examples given do show that many do and it enhances the poem, either creating flow or rhythm, whatever the poet intends.

I do not see myself as being able to fully apply all of the new information I learned about sound, but I do appreciate it. It would be difficult to truly follow a set pattern to create the perfect poem, but I do think I could use this idea to enhance the flow of my writing in the basic ways.

Sound

Before reading this chapter, I had no idea that the word 'sound' consisted of two semivowels, two consonants, and one mute. Mary Oliver would probably say this word was abrupt because it ended with a mute, just like the word 'rock' is abrupt compared to the word 'stone'. I've always thought it weird that a person can make vibrations with their voice box (through the air in forms of words) that can put an idea into another person's mind. Kind of like me describing a winter scene to you in person; you would most likely form a picture of winter in your head. What I never thought of, though, was how different letters help to change the mood and overall picture ofthat winter description.

Oliver's borderline obsession with poetry is obvious as she describes, with examples, the importance of the different elements of poetry, in this case sound. Her understanding of the various poems in this chapter ease the complication of what she is trying to tell me. My favorite part is when Oliver used the examples of 'Hush.', 'Please be quiet.', and 'Shut up.' I could better formulate in my head why the different vowels and consonants created different effects. Although this example helped, when she used Robert Frost's poem and created a two page analysis on just his use of different sounds I was a bit overwhelmed. Luckily, Oliver did make a reassurance her analysis was a bit extensive and that poets do not actively think about each letter of every word they use.

I see a line in the sand

There is much more to the line structure of any given poem than I thought even rational. I like to believe that I understood the different meters well enough to have been able to tell you at least some of what she was saying. However, I found it pretty interesting that she brings up the moods that each meter brings, bringing into frame of mind that the words themselves are not the only part of the poem playing into the reader’s reaction. I feel like the section on rhyme should have been a bit longer. She begins talking about the use of rhyme schemes and how they can be important, then talks about how the rhyme scheme can create a sense of either comfort or distraught at the whim of the poet. I feel that more could be said about some of the more popular rhyme schemes such as AABB and ABAB, so on and so forth. I also liked that she brought up that even with Free verse, stressed and unstressed syllables are very important. I never really think about the structure of the poem itself bringing meaning to the poem as a whole. The end of the chapter about enjambment was very enlightening. I never really thought about why we had enjambments or why they had a name, but now that I know that this is supposed to cause the reader to skip over natural pauses I felt very enlightened. This entire chapter was very eye opening to me, and I will try watching my poetry structure much more closely now.

"A Poetry Handbook" Sound- Megan Burch

In the chapter about Sound in Mary Oliver’s “A Poetry Handbook,” she discusses the different types of sound and their different uses throughout poetry. She begins by talking about vowels and consonants as the general category. “A vowel forms a perfect sound when uttered alone. A consonant cannot be perfectly uttered till joined to a vowel.” (Pg. 21) The different levels of vowels and consonants surprised me because I have never even heard of that. Oliver’s description of these topics increases our understanding of the material, encouraging us to try it. The alphabet is very important, considering that it is our working material for writing poetry, and we have to start with it.

Something that I enjoyed reading was under what circumstances we use certain phrases, and how the mutes have a lot to do with it. The author uses the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening as an example of our types of vowels and consonants. “Line 2 of the last stanza both begins and ends with a mute, and there is the heavy p in “promises” in the center of the line.” The extent of your language varies from person to person, but poets don’t typically plan out how many vowels and consonants they are going to use in a poem, it just happens naturally with practice. Many technical devices assisted the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, The first one, however, is sound.

To Sound or not to Sound

In "A Poetry Handbook" Mary Oliver explores the importance of "sound" in poetry. She first explains to the reader that the use of certain words, not only grants a distinct sound to the piece as a whole, but also own their own individual sound and "feel." The author goes into great detail of letter construction within words as they are made up of vowels and consonants, mutes and semivowels. All these groups of letters have their on "hard" and "soft" sounds that construct the feeling and meaning behind each word. The strategic placement of these characters within words and the placement of words themselves produce the feel of the entire piece.
Oliver later investigates further into "sound" by discussing three devices that help produce distinct sounds within a poem. These devices consist of alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia. The author explains how alliteration is the repetition of initial sounds in words, such as "baby bottle." As a reader I've noticed that the use of alliteration contributes immensely to the "flow" of rhyme as it simplifies the structure and allows the words to roll quickly off the tongue. Following, is the discussion of assonance which is explained to the reader as the repetition of vowel sounds within words. This device creates "near-rhyme" which, in my opinion, creates a sort of theme for the poem; allowing each line to be a part of the grand picture. Finally, the literary device of onomatopoeia is discussed. Onomatopoeia is the use of words that sound of a sense that of which they define (ex. slosh, rumble, buzz). These words add clear, expressionistic sounds and meaning to a poem.
Of all these devices I feel that I personally need to work on incorporating more assonance and onomatopoeia in my writing. I sometimes lack repetitive vowel sounds within my structure, creating a choppy image or overall theme. I also limit my descriptive imagery without the use of literal "sound" words. I think incorporating more of these two devices in my poetry will help me produce stronger rhyme schemes.