Monday 25 September 2023

Poetic devices 12: Cacophony


Cacophony, which means 'bad sound', is the opposite of euphony (good sound) and occurs in speech where there is a mix of harsh and/or inharmonious sounds. 

In poetry, cacophony refers to the use of words with sharp, harsh, sibilant (hissing) and especially unharmonious sounds – usually in the consonants of words – the poet uses to create an effect, emotion or atmosphere. Cacophony should not be confused with onomatopoeia which Matt Elmore has already elaborated upon.  A classic example of cacophony in poetry is Jabberwocky by Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll, even the title sounds discordant. 

Read the words out loud:
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; 
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe. 

Beware the Jabberwock, my son! 
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! 
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun 
The frumious Bandersnatch!
Yes, they are largely nonsense words, but the brilliance lies in the mix of the sounds and the way they discordantly flow to create the narrative. The use of the coined or made-up words creates sounds (or phonics) that imbue meaning into the elements Carroll is describing. Slithy toves are not ordinary toves - they are very slithy, and that sounds unpleasant. The jubjub bird sounds like a very irritating bird, because its name denotes the repetitive noise it makes... and so on. 

The tragedy Macbeth, written by Stratford-on-Avon bard William Shakespeare, is full of cacophonous passages of dialogue to depict descent into madness, and of course, this famous soliloquy, spoken immediately after a brutal and bloody murder:
Out! Damn spot! Out I say! One, Two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.
The last line in particular is quite chilling not least because of the cacophonous nature of the preceding texts. But it is the explosive and discordant nature of the first sentence that truly sets up and darkens the entire speech. The Bells by dark romantic poet Edgar Allen Poe is another example of how words can be used explosively to create not only terrific alliteration, but a full cacophony effect:
Hear the loud alarum bells– 
Brazen bells! 
What tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells! 
In the startled ear of night 
How they scream out their affright! 
Too much horrified to speak, 
They can only shriek, shriek, 
Out of tune
Note the use of words such as scream and shriek - sibilant words that might put you on edge when you hear them! Poe depicts turbulence in so many ways in this one short passage of text. There are numerous other examples of cacophony in poetry, which I'm sure you will be on the look out for! 

Steve Wheeler


Image from Pixabay 

3 comments:

  1. Another good example from the famous Macbeth speech "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow":

    .. a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage

    All the t and s sounds to set your teeth on edge.

    I used a similar device in my recent poem celebrating the Indian genius Ramanujan, as to how in the West we struggle to find the proofs of his statements

    "And step by stumbling step we strive to trace/The pathway to the theorems .."

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  2. Another amazing article Steve… cacophony is such a fun device to work with if a poet is so tired of rhyming and keeping it all smooth… a welcome departure to let both barrels fly on discordant sounds and imagery!!

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  3. Probably poem I wrote today is an example of cacophony. I adopted irregular and disruptive rhythms to create the sense of the unexpected event resulting in an adrenaline. I think the assonance of u and alliteration of j sounds in the line: "A muntjac jumps in front; jolts me awake" could be described as cacophony.

    Adrenaline High

    Adrenaline gushes high - hit the brake
    And I’m a hundred million-fold alive
    A muntjac jumps in front; jolts me awake
    Adrenaline gushes high - hit the brake
    I swerve around it, with sharp breath intake
    The world exploding but we all survive
    Adrenaline gushes high - hit the brake
    And I’m a hundred million-fold alive.

    (c) Iain Strachan 1-x-2023

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