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To know: "There Will Come Soft Rains" / "Meeting at Night" / "The Sound of Night"
To understand: sound devices
To be able to: use poetry reading strategies

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Look at the image below. Think about the following questions:

Where do you think this is?

When is this? (What time of year/day?)

What is the woman doing?

Who carved the heart into the tree? Why did they do it? Why this tree?

Why is she touching it?

Why is this picture called ‘Memories’?

What is she remembering?

How does she feel?

Write a haiku as a response to this image. Post it here.

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One common sound device used in poetry is rhyme, the repetition of sounds at the ends of words. End rhyme is rhyme at the ends of lines, as in this excerpt:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though.
-- from "Stopping by Snowy Woods" by Robert Frost

Another sound device is alliteration, the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words, as in:

Dr oning a dr owsy syncopated tune.
-- from "The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes

Still another sound device is onomatopoeia, the use of words that imitate sounds, as in:

Hark, hark!
Bow-wow.
The watch-dogs bark!
Bow-wow.
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, ‘🤬-a-diddle-dow!
-- from The Tempest by William Shakespeare

As you read the following poems about nature, notice their sound devices.

ACTIVITY
With a partner, create a metaphor or simile for the concepts of alliteration and onomatopoeia.

Choose a category from the list below and make a creative connection between it and these two concepts.

Complete the following sentence frame: Alliteration is / is like ____________, whereas onomatopoeia is / is like __________. This implies that...

Example: Sufficient evidence is like eating lots of different food at a restaurant until you're satisfied and no longer hungry. This implies that sufficient evidence satisfies the need to provide enough support for a claim.

Categories: food; musical instruments/music; art; plants; animals; cities; parts of the body; books; school

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Reading poetry requires paying attention not only to the meaning of the words but to the way they look and sound. The following strategies will help you:

Notice how the lines are arranged on the page. Are they long lines, or short? Are they grouped into regular stanzas or irregular stanzas, or are they not divided into stanzas at all? Stanza breaks usually signal the start of a new idea.

Pause in your reading where punctuation marks appear, just as you would when reading prose. Note that in poetry, punctuation does not always occur at the end of a line; a thought may continue for several lines.

Read a poem aloud several times. As you read, notice whether the rhythm is regular or varied. Is there a rhyme scheme, or regular pattern of end rhyme? For example, you’ll notice that “There Will Come Soft Rains” is written in couplets, two-line units with an aa rhyme scheme. Regular patterns of rhythm and rhyme give a musical quality to poems.

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INVESTIGATE: "THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS" / "MEETING AT NIGHT"/ "THE SOUND OF NIGHT"

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INVESTIGATE: "THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS" / "MEETING AT NIGHT"/ "THE SOUND OF NIGHT"

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Download the PDF below.

Type your answers directly into the PDF.

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Reading Poetry Which poem did you appreciate most when read aloud? Explain the qualities that were brought out in an oral reading.

Analyze Rhyme Describe how end rhyme is used in each poem. Which poems employ a regular rhyme scheme? What ideas are emphasized through end rhyme?

Recognize Alliteration Which poem makes the most obvious use of
alliteration? What feelings or ideas are suggested by these repeated
consonant sounds?

Relate Theme and Sound Devices Describe the qualities of nature conveyed in each poem. How are sound devices used to suggest these qualities? Refer to your sound devices chart to plan your answer.

Draw Conclusions What does each poem suggest about humans and nature?

Critical Interpretations According to one critic, Teasdale’s poetry “expresses the fragility of human life where the only real certainty comes from nature.” How does this comment apply to “There Will Come Soft Rains”?

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Think of how humankind has changed landscapes, driven other species to extinction, and used nature for our own ends. Then consider the following questions:

Are humans more powerful than nature? Or are humans insignificant in the face of nature’s power?

Post your thoughts here.