Rhyme, rhythm and sound II — heightening and foregrounding

Abstract

Verse has been called a heightened form of ordinary language, in the sense that it does nothing that is not done in ordinary speech, but what it does is foregrounded and focused on for its own sake. So natural rhythms are made more regular, and ‘sound effects’ like alliteration, assonance and rhyme, which occur in ordinary language but usually in a random way, are made a deliberate part of the sound patterns.