Within the semester of our class, we undertook the
most dreadful topic within all of world literature, poetry. We were assigned to take a quiz about the
sound patterns within the poetry of Seamus Heaney; we needed to define the
words ‘alliteration’, ‘assonance’, and ‘consonance’. Alliteration can be defined as the repetition
of some sounds at the beginning of a word; Assonance can be defined as the
repetition of vowel sounds, while consonance can be defined as the repetition
of the same consonant.
For the second half of our quiz, we were given a
poem to examine and analyze. “Honeymoon
Flight” by Seamus Heaney consists of multiple uses of alliteration, assonance,
and consonance. However, along with
determining the three sound patterns, we also were encouraged to interoperate
our personal understanding of the poem within our explanation. The poem goes as follows:
Below, the patchwork earth, dark
hems of hedge,
The
long grey tapes of road that bind and loose
Villages
and fields in casual marriage:
We
bank above the small lough and farmhouse
And
the sure green world goes topsy-turvy
As
we climb out of our familiar landscape.
The
engine noises change. You look at me.
The
coastline slips away beneath the wing-tip.
And
launched right off the earth by force of fire
We
hang, miraculous, above the water,
Dependent
on the invisible air
To
keep us airborne and to bring us further.
Ahead
of us the sky’s a geyser now.
A
calm voice talks of cloud yet we feel lost.
Air-pockets
jolt our fears and down we go.
Travellers,
at this point, can only trust.
The two examples that I think help
Heaney communicate his ideas are, “and the sure green world goes topsy-turvy”
and “and launched right off the earth by force of fire”. I think these examples help readers
understand the poem because of their alliterations and consonance that are
portrayed. As a reader, these two lines
specifically communicate to me that the poem is taking place on an airplane and
that it is about to take flight.
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