Sound poetry emphasizes the sounds of words to create a musical tone and rhythm. It is meant to be performed and uses poetic devices such as alliteration and repetition. Visual poetry arranges text to form symbols or images. Both forms convey meaning through sound or visual imagery.
Sound poetry is a form of poetry that emphasizes the sounds that make up words rather than the words themselves. A sound poem uses an arrangement of phonetic sounds to create a musical tone and rhythm. Although its text may be written down, sound poems are meant to be “performed,” spoken publicly by the poet. Some of the poetry is available in recorded rather than written form. As an art form, it is related to visual poetry.
All poetry can probably be considered to have its roots in an oral tradition, since all poetry was spoken in pre-literate cultures. Some of the world’s great epics are written copies of oral narratives. What fundamentally distinguishes sound poetry from oral poetry is that its sounds have no meaning in any traditional sense. Sounds are not “words” but just sounds arranged in a pattern.
In written form, sound poetry contains letters and sounds that look like words but aren’t. German author and poet Hugo Ball performed what may have been the first public sound poem in 1915. Untitled, it contains the lines “gadgi beri bimba/glandiri lauli lonni cadori”. Like words, sounds have consonants and vowels. The arrangement also uses poetic devices such as alliteration, oblique rhyme and repetition.
Similar to music, the meaning of sound poetry is conveyed in the images that sounds create in the mind of the listener. The sound arrangements of the poems are structured like traditional poetry, with lines, lines and stanzas. The German sound poet Kurt Schwitters described his poem “Ursonate” in musical terms. He refers to its four movements, the overture and the finale. He likened written poetry to a musical score, which could be interpreted in various interpretations and was better performed and listened to than read.
Somehow related to sound poetry is visual poetry. As does sound-based poetry, visual poetry uses the arrangement of text to effect the meaning of the poem. The lines of the poem are arranged on the page to form symbols, patterns or images.
An often cited example of visual poetry is “Easter Wings” by Welsh-born English poet George Herbert. The theme of the poem is a Christian’s admission of sin and prayer for redemption. The text is composed so that when held sideways, it shows an image of a bird flying upwards. Held upright, the words suggest an hourglass, a symbol of time. In Christianity, Easter, which celebrates Christ’s resurrection from the dead, is traditionally a time of repentance.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
