Using Rhetorical SCHEMES—Part One: The Phonic Schemes

As noted in previous postings, the two major types of Rhetorical Figures are TROPES and SCHEMES. The Tropes are truly “figurative” in that they are uses of words that are suggestive and meaningful—but NOT literally true. Previous postings have covered some important Tropes: Metaphor, Simile, Metonymy, Synaesthesia, etc.

Let’s turn to the SCHEMES with a look at the major PHONIC SCHEMES—ways with words that are recognizable “shapes of language” or structures, but which DO have literal meaning and intent. The Phonic Schemes, as the name implies, have to do with sound. The first essential of my definition of POETRY is: “Poetry is that use of language in which the speaker or writer has paid attention to the Sound of Words as well as their Sense, to the Music of Words as well as their Meaning.” So with the Phonic Schemes.

You’ve already been introduced to two of these: Rhyme and Alliteration. Technically, RHYME is the full OR near echo of sound. We usually think of it as the exact repetition of sound. A “Full” or “True” rhyme happens when the last vowel sound of a word and any succeeding consonant sounds are exactly repeated. “Tree” and “Free” rhyme exactly due to the long “E” final sound (note: there are no consonant sounds after the vowel). “Trees” and “Breeze” are full rhymes as well. The sound is long “E” followed by the sound of “Z”—Yes I know that “Trees” ends with the letter “S,” but we pronounce it as a “Z.”

Poets (and accomplished Rhetoricians [Speakers and Writers]) know also that “Near” or “Slant” rhymes are useful. More on this in a bit.

I’m sure you have been introduced to ALLITERATION. Usually the “Introducer”—most often a teacher — will lead into it by quoting some common “tongue-twisters”: “Peter Piper picked a peck….” “She sells sea shells at the sea shore,” etc. Alliteration is usually introduced as “the repetition of the beginning consonant sounds of words.” This is fine, but, repetition of initial vowel sounds is also Alliteration. But all folks who have developed a style with language (written or spoken) know the power of this figure. Our earliest poetry in English (Anglo-Saxon stuff like BEOWULF) counted accents in the line (actual by “half-lines,” as with all Germanic language group poetry), but also depended upon Alliteration to bind the two half-lines together. As we have in the first line of Beowulf: “Hwaet we gar-Dena || in gear dagum” [“Lo! We of the Spear-Danes || in the days of yore…”]—the “G”s of “gar” and “gear” and the “D”s of “Dena” and “dagum” bind the two halves together.

Indeed, since English has the largest vocabulary of any language that has ever existed, there is really no excuse for not using alliteration. Some alliterative phrasings have become trite: “right as rain,” “tried and true,” “bigger and better,” “friend or foe,” etc. But there is ample room for finding fresh alliterative connections.

One of my favorite poets is the Jesuit priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins was a master of alliteration and it is used in all of his poems. My favorite example of his use of it is from the ending of the great sonnet, “God’s Grandeur.” Here are the last five lines:

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

WOW! The repeating of the “D,” “L,” “B,” and “W” sounds adds power and memorability to these lines.

The penultimate stanza of A. E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young,” also shows the power of alliteration:

“…So set, before its echoes fade

The fleet foot on the sill of shade

And hold to the low lintel up

The still-defended challenge cup….”

This example also includes the two other Phonic Schemes that are not so commonly known (because they are not commonly taught—except, perhaps, to English majors or others who formally study the uses of language: Journalists, Ministers, Lawyers, etc.). These OTHER two are CONSONANCE and ASSONANCE—the noticeable repetition of internal or terminal consonant or vowel sounds, respectively.

Aside from some “internal rhyme” in the Housman example above (“sill”:”still”) and the obvious alliteration on the sounds of “S,” “L,” and “F,” there are many instances of Consonance—on the sound of “L” (“sill,” “hold,” “lintel,” “still,” and “challenge.” There is also Assonance with “So,” “before,” “echoes,” “hold,” and “low” on the long, open “O” vowel. We hear these repeats, perhaps more subconsciously than we do the alliterations, but we still hear them.

Abe Lincoln, whose “Gettysburg Address” will be the subject of a future posting and complete RHETORICAL ANALYSIS, begins that famous speech with a wonderful example of Assonance and Consonance. Listen closely to the long “O” sounds and the rolling “R” sounds within the first lines:

“Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth…”

Four, score, ago, our, brought, forth—all open “O” vowels

Four, score, years, our, fathers, brought, forth—all include the amazing repetition of internal and terminal “R”s.

There is one other Phonic Scheme that I will not claim to have invented—except for, perhaps, the invention of the name I give it: SIMILANCE.

There are pairs of letter sounds in English (and other languages) that sound good together because of SIMILARITY. They are SIMILAR because they are actually made with the same vocal mechanisms we use in speaking, but one of the pair is, as linguists call it, VOICED, and the other is VOICELESS or UNVOICED. When we vibrate our voice box, the sound becomes “voiced.” Some good examples are “F”-“V” and “P”-“B.” The “F” sound is voiceless. We make it by putting the upper teeth against the lower lip and letting our breath pass through. When we add voice, the sound becomes “V.” With the letter “P” sound, the lips are pursed together and then we let breath “explode.” The letter “B” sound is simply the voiced version of the same action [those last two letter sounds are called “plosives” by linguists.

Here is a list of the pairs that have, as I call it, SIMILANCE: BP, DT, FV, GK, LR (believe it or not, yes “L” and “R”), MN (the “hums” or “nasals”), SZ, and SH+ZH. These sounds pairs have the effect of near-echo.