Alliteration and Rhym - Essay Example

Alliteration and Rhyme The literary work is structured in such a manner that it portrays the skills and the competency of the composer. One of the components that play key role in the poem composition is the alliteration and rhyme. They directly affect the mood of the speaker and draw the attention of the audience on how the events are unfolding in the pieces of work. Using Poe’s the Raven as an example, this essay seeks to illustrate the ways in which alliteration and rhyme has been used in the poem and their contribution in the tone that determines the mood of the writer toward the subject in the discussion. Alliteration occurs when a number of words with same consonant sound are adjacent to each other in series. While on the other hand rhyme occurs when there is a repetition of similar sounds in words or more words most often in the final syllable of line in syllable. Internal rhyme occurs in the middle words and end words rhyme with each other either in the same line or in the second line or the end word and the middle worlds in different lines. The poem is full of alliteration and internal rhyme in the stanza because they mostly occur together depending on the composition of the piece of work. As illustrated in the poem the Raven a number of words has occurred in series for example in the first stanza…. “While I pondered weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— while I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.” The selected consonance are “weak” and weary” the first consonance sounds the same in the like manner there is internal rhyme in the same line because the vowel letters in the middle of each word sound the same. The two words weak and weary create a picture in the mind the reader of the condition surround the writer. He has lost the physical strength and tired psychologically creating a sad mood in the beginning with melancholic and sad situation surrounding the writer past the midnight. Using weak and weary in the same line creates the element of music which can be sung with ease and remembered by the reader. It sticks in the memory and create a mental picture in the audiences. The other example in the same stanza is nodded, nearly, napping, tapping and rapping. The first letter in the first three word sound the same while the last syllables in of the last three words sound alike. They have been used in the poem to emphasize the meaning and change to another event coming in the raven tapping. When use in this situation it create a deeper feeling in the audience of the speakers situation moving from bad to worse. Introducing something else that frightens farther in the dark night. The loneliness on the speaker in the dark night can be conceived and understood by the readers to. In the beginning the unity of event unfolding has been achieved through the use of internal rhyme. Reading this first stanza becomes very interesting because of the element of rhythm. It attracts the readers and their desire to continue reciting the second stanza in which the same styles has been used makes the poem beautiful and appealing to the year (Silverman 78). In the second stanza it is again evidenced how these stylistic devices have been used for example in this lines“….Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore— For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore”. The following word has been highlighted morrow, borrow, and sorrow. They have expressed the internal rhyme creating appealing sound in the form of music to attract and retain the attention of the reader. Speaker tries to get from the books what can console from the sorrow of losing the wife but all seems impossible. The word sorrow has been repeated the second time to create a picture of pain the speaker is undergoing in the dark and lonely night. As the poem become more musical to sing the pain of the speaker intensifies as he recall the departure of the loved wife that to his surprise could not come back. In the continuous agony, the mood continues to change in the minds of the reader each from every word that is stresses and emphasize. The others include lost, Lerone. This creates an implied meaning that the loved one is gone and will never come back in the future. The speaker lament of the pain he is undergoing since the departures of his loved one. It helps in the context to bring the clear picture of mourning turning the mood into screaming as the speaker recalls the pain of losing his beloved wife in the past. He wished in the dark night that she would come back to life but something else happen in his life meeting the raven that cannot speak but only repeat the same words nevermore making the speaker to become more sorrowful and in a deep stress. Meeting a different creature in the form of a bird make the situation more superstitious and unnatural to the speaker he tries to equate the event with evil world where the forces are struggling against each other (Edgar 23). The other stanza continues to be saturated with alliteration in various forms and rhyme for example, “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before”. The speaker is lost in the darkness with several thought in the mind overwhelmed with fear and doubt he begins to dream the dreams which are not real. The continuous repetition of the last syllable makes reading and recitation attractive and appealing to the listening years. There is a clear flow of events as the speaker moves from fearing, doubting and dreaming. The mood also changes with the flow of the events from doubting to dreaming the speakers moves from the world of substance imagination to immaterial imagination thing that happen in the mind where he cannot control. There is no mortal that has ever dreamt about what the speaker is talking about make him unique and present a different case which none has ever gone through. This is very rare as the reader and the audience comes in contact with a different feeling which has never been felt before. The speaker is mixed up with different thoughts in the mind which cannot be settled at the moment (Silverman 45). In the other sections of the poem may features have been identified which have significance in nature… “Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,” The speaker has just opened the door but while going back to the chamber the head start burning. The speaker thought of a different event in the chamber but the situation still grows farther into another awesome event. As he left the dark environment into the chambers he meet the raven and he is worried much more on what do as the raven appears like the angel that has been sent to console him. The reader can easily remember and focus on the events from turning to burning closely related and adding meaning to the other worlds that have been used. The reader can identified with easy the mood and tell the exact thing that is happening (Sova 6). In conclusion, the alliteration and rhyme in the poem has created different feeling from the beginning to the end creating musicality and uniformity in the poem. Works Cited Edgar, Allan. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems. Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 2002. Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 2001. Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York City: Checkmark Books, 2001. . 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