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Sounding the Heart of the poem

Sounding the Heart of the poem is a workshop by The Institute of Public Scholarship poet, playwright, and fiction writer, Denise Miller, that is focused on sound devices like assonance, alliteration, and consonance, combined with the concept of echolocation, to explore how poets can use sound to navigate the emotional and thematic depths of their work. Participants will examine how repeated vowel sounds (assonance), initial consonant sounds (alliteration), and recurring consonant sounds (consonance) create echoes within a poem, much like echolocation helps non-human animals orient themselves in spaceThe workshop emphasizes how these sound devices resonate to reveal the “heart” of a poem—its core meaning or emotional truth. Activities include:

• Analyzing Poems: Studying examples where sound devices enhance mood, rhythm, or imagery.
• Sound Mapping: Participants create “sound maps” by identifying patterns of assonance, alliteration, and consonance in their own or others’ poems.
• Writing Exercises: Revising one of their poems that isn’t quite there yet to identify where sound can be deliberately used to evoke feelings or guide readers toward the poem’s heart.
• Echolocation Concept: Drawing parallels between the way sound waves bounce back to reveal unseen spaces and how poetic sounds uncover hidden layers of meaning.

This approach encourages poets to think of sound not just as ornamentation but as a tool for discovery and connection within their work

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