Sound and Sense Chapter 13

1. Verse (a) better adapts sound to sense. "Guard" and "guide" are phonetically linked to each other and also evoke a sense of strength with their hard "g" sounds. This is better than the vague and less concrete "point your way" and "keep you safe.

2. (b). "Crabbed as dull fools suppose" is more cacophonous than the alternative, conveying the line's desired harshness that coincides with its image. Furthermore, "Apollo's lute" is more euphonious than "the lute of Phoebus," highlighting the lute's musical beauty.

3. (b) the alliterated "c" sound is more cacophonous than the alternative, so it more successfully portrays the roughness of the croaking cross that the speaker attempts to convey.

4. (b). "Low voice," with it's long "o" sounds and it's soft "l" and "s," is more euphonious than the staccato "talk." The euphony of the phrase coincides with the tones of the singing bells described in the verse.

5. (b). The first line sounds very busy with its inconsistent meter and awkward phoneme connections, which is appropriate for the rushed tone. The second line contains many "m" sounds, evoking the desired moaning of the doves. The "m" sounds in the third line serve as the bees' murmur.

6. (a) The words "unpleasing sharps" at the end of the voice are more unpleasant than "doleful flats," which contains more soft consonants and long vowels. The first option therefore fits more with the intended unpleasant tone.

7. (b) the first line of option (a) only has three hard consonant sounds and is not at all as "severe" as the speaker intends. The first line of option (b) has twelve, so the words are sufficiently "hard" as to "stick in the soft Muses' gullets."

8. (a). The "s" sounds of "incessantly softly" create a rhythm that parallels the rhythm with which Death and Night wash the world.

9. (b) The meter of the final line is such that the word "me" receives emphasis, highlighting the aloneness of the speaker. The consistent meter of the fourth line I the second option places no extra emphasis on the word.

10. (b) This option is slightly more cacophonous, so its sounds coincide better with the tone of contempt toward the subject.