Book Review: Euphonics – A Poet’s Dictionary of Enchantments by John Michell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This wonderful book was a thoughtful gift from my BFF, Eloise De Sousa, who has encouraged me in my quest to become a published poet.
Everybody loves alliteration. Well, almost everybody. Many people don’t even realise that they love alliteration yet reading a story or a poem that is littered with alliteration gives them a warm and comfortable feeling.
This book explains why that is the case. It also explains how the use of each letter of the alphabet, and even sounds such as “CH” and “SL” affect our moods. We are treated with snippets of poetry to illustrate the points that are being made, which are further enhanced by the wonderful drawings of Merrily Harpur.
Allow me to show you with a quote from the book on the page that explains “SL”.
“Since you’re such a slippery slug,”
Hissed Sally with a sullen shrug,
“Slink to Susie’s sluttish slum.
She’s your sort of slimy scum.”
Isn’t that wonderful? How does it make you feel?
In this delightful book of treasures, you will reach the end of each page with a different feeling and you will understand much more about the endless possibilities that good use of letters and sounds can bring to your writing.
It is a perfect complement to The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase by Mark Forsyth, which my father, Tony Greenfield, gifted to me about four years ago.
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