- Onomatopoeia: The use of words that imitate the sounds they describe, such as "buzz" or "hiss."
- Alliteration: The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words, such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."
- Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds in close proximity, such as "The cat sat on the mat."
- Consonance: The repetition of consonant sounds at the end of words, such as "night" and "light."
- Rhythm: The pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in a line of poetry.
- Meter: The regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.
- Pitch: The highness or lowness of a sound.
- Timbre: The quality of a sound that distinguishes it from other sounds of the same pitch and loudness.
Acoustic poets may also use non-linguistic sounds, such as musical instruments or everyday noises, in their poems.
The goal of acoustic poetry is to create a sensory experience for the listener that is both pleasurable and thought-provoking. Acoustic poems can be enjoyed by people of all ages and backgrounds, regardless of their understanding of traditional poetic forms.
Here are some examples of acoustic poems:
- "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
- "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll
- "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot
- "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg
- "Concrete Poems" by Aram Saroyan
- "Sound Poems" by John Cage
- "Audio Art" by Laurie Anderson
Acoustic poetry is a vital and evolving art form that continues to push the boundaries of what poetry can be.