Poets love these strong and varied vowel sounds. Don Paterson says that poetry differs from ordinary language in the prominence it gives to the vowel. Poems get their music from the vowelly chewiness of single words, and from the dancing cadences of the words joined together. We notice the obvious magic of cadence, but not always the subtler magic of vowels. Poems are felt and we feel them most in our mouths, where the vowel sounds meet. Words are only flat on the page. In the mouth and in the head, where silent reading sounds, they are solid and alive.
