Sound Techniques In Maxine Kumin's The Sound Of Night

In the poem “The Sound of Night” by Maxine Kumin, the author uses sound to develop the theme. Humans become scared and uneasy when they cannot identify objects in the dark or unknown. Sound devices such as onomatopoeia and consonance help develop this theme. Kumin uses onomatopoeia to show how the people fear the noises at night: “squeak, chirp, dip, and skim of skates / of air, and the fat frogs wake and prink” (6-7). Kumin uses these noises to develop the theme of the unknown. In fact, people possess a fear of the dark, which makes them afraid of the harmless creatures in the night. These sounds originate from the innocent animals, and while most would not fear them in the light of day, the blackness of night fills people with unease. Kumin