onomatopoeia can be inspirational!

Onomatopoeia can become the inspiration for poems, picture books, and poetry collections.

Rhyme Doctor Eileen Meyer has been exploring poetic devices on the House Calls blog, and a November 2022 post features onomatopoeia. It’s a tough word to spell, but a fun device to use when writing in rhyme. As Eileen tells us, onomatopoetic words imitate the sounds of what they mean – for example, squish, purr, whoop, twang. Use of these words can be very effective, adding fun and interest to your rhyme.

"A Game" poem in Spider Magazine, May/June 2010

Above is an example of a poem built around a sound. I was inspired to write it while watching the movie, Forrest Gump. In one part of the movie, Forrest learns table tennis and discovers that he excels at it. While watching, I noticed that the sound that the ball makes on the paddle and table is what gives the game its more common name – ping pong. I feel that the onomatopoeia really makes this poem shine!

Zap! Clap! Boom! by Laura Purdie Salas and Elly MacKay. Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2023.

​In Laura Salas’ new picture book, Zap! Clap! Boom!: the Story of a Thunderstorm, illustrated by Elly MacKay (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, ©2023), the author gives the thunderstorm life and power using the title’s repetitive onomatopoeia refrain – “ZAP! CLAP! BOOM!”
 
Dive into this book and you’ll discover what a terrific rhymer and picture book writer Laura Salas is! In the spread below, notice the use of alliteration – flicker/flitter, breeze/blows, hang/heavy – and internal rhyme – flitter/skitter. The meter is trochee, a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, with very few variations. The use of an ellipsis at the end of the righthand page encourages the reader to turn the page.

The refrain pages are not the only ones that use onomatopoeia. Toward the middle of the book, within the descriptive text, you’ll find this passage:
 
Wind blows fiercely,
howls
and shrieks.
The world
groans slowly,
shivers,
creaks.
 
The words howls, shrieks, groans, and creaks are all onomatopoeias. So lovely!
The end of the book contains a bonus two pages of nonfiction information,
​“The Science Behind Storms.”

Boom! Bellow! Bleat!: Animal Poems for Two or More Voices by Georgia Heard and Aaron DeWitt. Wordsong, 2019.

​Poet Georgia Heard built an entire poetry collection around the sounds of animals. Boom! Bellow! Bleat!: Animal Poems for Two or More Voices is illustrated by Aaron DeWitt (Wordsong, ©2019). These poems are intended to be performed by two readers. Readers will sometimes alternate lines, and other times read together.

 
Above is the opening poem, “Animal Songs.” The words in black are voiced by Reader 1, those in red are voiced by Reader 2, and those in blue are voiced together. What a collection of great animal sounds! But Reader 2 isn’t having all the fun because the names of the animals are a treat to say aloud, too.
 
The book contains 13 poems, mostly free verse. Georgia Heard is also a masterful poet. In her poem about geese, she uses repetition/echo, alliteration, and lots of honking onomatopoeia! The calls of the honking geese, as well as the illustration forms a shape poem, mimicking the flying V of a flock of geese.
 
We call to each other
                                                            We call to each other.
Daylight is fading.
                                                            Frost powders trees.
                        Time to fly south for winter.
Follow the flyways,
                                                            cling to the coastline.
 
Honk
                                                            Honk
Honk
                                                            Honk
Honk
                                                            Honk
                        Honk

 backmatterA second stanza mirrors this text but alters key words and phrases to the capture the geese’s return flight for spring.
 
Georgia Heard added a “Performance Key” to open the book, that gives instructions on how to read two-voice poems. At the end of the book, she also includes three pages of nonfiction backmatter, “Nature’s Notes,” with more information about the sounds that animals make.

A few more favorite picture books that demonstrate clever use of onomatopoeia are:
 
Rumble and Roar: Sound Around the World by Sue Fliess and Khoa Le (Millbrook Press, ©2022)
 
It’s So Quiet: a Not-Quite-Going-to-Bed Book by Sherri Rinker and Tony Fucile (Chronicle Books, ©2021)
 
Boom Boom Go Away! by Laura Geringer and Bagram Ibatoulline (Simon & Schuster Kids, ©2010)
 
Hush! by Mingfong Ho and Holly Meade (Orchard Books, ©1996)
 
 
See what YOU can create using onomatopoeia!