Last week, I wrote about using language devices in my writing. I’m not the only author
who does it. Not by a long shot.
Here are a couple
of great examples.
Alliteration and assonance
Repetition
Rhyme
And then, in a flash,
with the stealth of a
thief.
a frog’s sticky tongue
flicks out at the leaf
and snatches the meal
. . .
The bug comes to grief.
The sun is rising.
Up, up.
It heats the air.
Up, up.
Wings stretch wide
to catch a ride
on warming air.
Going where?
Up, up.
The first example,
The Story Goes On by Aileen Fisher, is more zany and playful. Well, the word
choices don’t hurt. But here’s something else to notice: The rhyming words have
a very hard sound—thief, leaf, grief.
But in Vulture View by April Pulley Sayre, the
rhyming words have much softer sounds—wide, ride, air, where. Those softer
sounds help to make the piece more lyrical, as does all the repetitive “up”s
separated by commas.
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