O is for Onomatopoeia

Do you have any words that you just like the sound of? That you find fun to say? Onomatopoeia is one of those words for me. Maybe it's all the vowel sounds or the way it trips along off the tongue with those short syllables. Or maybe I just like the concept of what onomatopoeia represents--a word that is defined by the sound it makes, such as thud, cluck, or woof.

What's interesting is the sounds for different things are different in different languages. It we hear a bell clang, whether it is here, in Japan, or Germany, theoretically all of our words for that sound should be the same or at least similar. But it doesn't usually work out that way. For example, here are a few examples of what a dog says in different languages:

US--ruff-ruff, woof-woof, arf-arf, or for a little dog--yip-yip, yap-yap.
Albanian--ham-ham
Burmese--woke-woke
Hindi--bow-bow
Lebanese--haw-haw
Polish--hau-hau

So there's quite a variety in just those few examples, and we can't even agree on the sound in our own language. But do you see the one thing they have in common? The dog always barks twice.

Onomatopoeia is also a device that can be used quite effectively in literature, especially poetry. I think no one did this better than Edgar Allan Poe. So in honor of National Poetry Month, here is his most famous poem using onomatopoeia.

The Bells       

Hear the sledges with the bells-
                  Silver bells!
  What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
          How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
              In the icy air of night!
          While the stars that oversprinkle
          All the heavens, seem to twinkle
            With a crystalline delight;
                Keeping time, time, time,
            In a sort of Runic rhyme,
  To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
            From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
                  Bells, bells, bells-
  From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

                        II

          Hear the mellow wedding bells,
                  Golden bells!
  What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
          Through the balmy air of night
          How they ring out their delight!
            From the molten-golden notes,
                  And an in tune,
            What a liquid ditty floats
  To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
                  On the moon!
          Oh, from out the sounding cells,
  What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
                  How it swells!
                  How it dwells
            On the Future! how it tells
            Of the rapture that impels
          To the swinging and the ringing
            Of the bells, bells, bells,
          Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
                  Bells, bells, bells-
  To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

                        III

          Hear the loud alarum bells-
                  Brazen bells!
  What a 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,
  In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
  In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
          Leaping higher, higher, higher,
            With a desperate desire,
          And a resolute endeavor,
          Now- now to sit or never,
        By the side of the pale-faced moon.
          Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
          What a tale their terror tells
                  Of Despair!
        How they clang, and clash, and roar!
        What a horror they outpour
      On the bosom of the palpitating air!
          Yet the ear it fully knows,
                  By the twanging,
                  And the clanging,
          How the danger ebbs and flows:
          Yet the ear distinctly tells,
                  In the jangling,
                  And the wrangling,
          How the danger sinks and swells,
  By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells-
                  Of the bells-
          Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
                Bells, bells, bells-
      In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

                        IV

          Hear the tolling of the bells-
                  Iron Bells!
  What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
          In the silence of the night,
          How we shiver with affright
    At the melancholy menace of their tone!
          For every sound that floats
          From the rust within their throats
                    Is a groan.
          And the people- ah, the people-
          They that dwell up in the steeple,
                  All Alone
          And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
            In that muffled monotone,
          Feel a glory in so rolling
            On the human heart a stone-
          They are neither man nor woman-
          They are neither brute nor human-
                  They are Ghouls:
            And their king it is who tolls;
            And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
                  Rolls
              A paean from the bells!
          And his merry bosom swells
            With the paean of the bells!
          And he dances, and he yells;
          Keeping time, time, time,
          In a sort of Runic rhyme,
            To the paean of the bells-
                  Of the bells:
          Keeping time, time, time,
          In a sort of Runic rhyme,
            To the throbbing of the bells-
          Of the bells, bells, bells-
            To the sobbing of the bells;
          Keeping time, time, time,
            As he knells, knells, knells,
          In a happy Runic rhyme,
            To the rolling of the bells-
          Of the bells, bells, bells:
            To the tolling of the bells,
          Of the bells, bells, bells, bells-
            Bells, bells, bells-
    To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

This is only one of the many versions (8 at least)  that have slipped into the world. Poe adapted it a number of times but this is the most common..The original idea for The Bells, is believed to have been given to Poe by his friend, Mrs Shew. An earlier draft, (titled, The Bells, By Mrs. M. A. Shew.) Contained only two stanzas, totalling seventeen lines and read..