POETRY IS ANOTHER FORM OF MUSIC

Based on the frequencies within sounds, we could devise a vowel scale much like a musical scale in which the “vowels are like musical notes and chords.” The high frequency sounds will have shorter waves, hence a higher frequency of waves per second. This increase in activity gives the ear more information to process, which “suggests greater vitality, speed, littleness and excitement” (Nims 155). So shortwave sounds are shrill like the ee of a whiny “please,” or complaining “geez!” The pronunciation of this vowel requires the tongue to rise slightly and the mouth opens narrowly in order to restrict the amount of passing air.

Conversely, lower frequencies create slower and deeper sounds consisting of longer waves occurring fewer times per second. For example, “when a 78 rpm record is slowed down to the 33 1/3 (LP) speed” the record will have a deep downtempo sound. A low-frequency sound could be the oo like a deep “lagoon” or the slow-minded “buffoon.” These sounds remind us of largeness and great volume with slow vibrations. “Avalanches and stormy seas have deeper reverberations than hailstones on the roof.” Likewise, a bass has longer strings and a larger cavity than a violin, thus reverberates deeper (Nims 157).

Therefore, we can determine the resonance of a vowel sound depending on the size and shape of the bodily cavities in which the vowels resound. “The larger the hollow in which a vowel sound vibrates, the deeper the sound and the more clearly our nerves and muscles tell us that we ourselves are embodying largeness, hollowness, darkness” (157 Nims). Our body tries to emulate the feeling of largeness by producing the sound ah, which emerges from the whole space of the mouth— “a large resonating chamber near the brain.” And just as our voices mimic the sounds of what they see, the patterns and shapes we see in nature are physical constructions of “vibrating entities, each with a different frequency and wavelength.” The size and speed at which an object vibrates contributes to its particular sound” (Paul 121). In essence, a sound’s energy organizes shapes the forms that we perceive with our eyes. Biologist Rupert Sheldrake calls these “organizing principles ‘morphogenetic fields’—blueprints that organize matter and energy into their final intended forms” (Paul 12). Perhaps the intelligence of vibration that organizes the radial growth of a fern is the same principle that determines the growth pattern of a starfish. There is an overall visual pulsation when we look at other natural forms such as fractals. It is also possible for the sound of a poem to dictate its form.

Language can be euphonious, both pleasant to hear and to pronounce—involving muscular activity. “Eurhythmics is the art of moving our body in harmony with music or the spoken word; euphony might be thought of as oral eurhythmics.” This uninterrupted flow, the rhythmic nature, the combination and sequencing of sounds in a poem can be similar in form and effect as that of mantra. Its opposite is, “cacophony, the harsh or inharmonious use of language—harsh to listen to because harsh to pronounce,” (Nims 188) but these lines in poetry may also please us because of their effect on meaning. In Jenny’s plate experiments, we see that the harmonious pure tones shaped matter into beautiful geometric forms whereas dissonance created chaotic formless matter. Similar to the effect of dissonance, ultrasound products keep pests out of homes because these vibrations have a negative affect on their nervous systems. These frequencies are so powerful that ultrasonic weaponry has been actively used and researched by the U.S. military:

[The U.S. military] has recently developed the loudest sound in history—ten thousand times louder than the sound of a space shuttle taking off—to detect the presence of submarines in our territorial waters. This Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar technology is known to cause fatal brain hemorrhaging in whales and dolphins, not to mention its effects on human divers (Paul 13).


However, this destructive capacity in anything is necessary and not necessarily negative—just as the role of “the destroyers,” Shiva and Kali to Hindu mythology. For instance, the Lithotripter is a medical machine developed in Germany that can dissolve gallstones and kidney stones without surgery by bombarding them with sound waves (Paul 13). Also, expressions like a moan, groan, or scream can cause a release just as a hum can calm.