Sound Devices
- Onomatopoeia: The use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning
"shriek "(7), "pop" (8)
Effect: "Shriek" in line 7 imitates the sound of the voice of Mrs Sisyphus screaming because she is annoyed by Sisyphus, who is a workaholic and does not spend a lot of time with her. Another use of onomatopoeia in the next line, "pop", imitates the sound of a cork bottle opening, and visualises a pleasant dinner or picnic time that Mrs Sisyphus wants to spend with Sisyphus.
"bark" (15)
Effect: At first, Mrs. Sisyphus assumes that Sisyphus himself would consider pushing the boulder a futile work. Thus, Mrs. Sisyphus says "He might as well as bark at the moon." 'Bark at the moon' is to 'protest in vain.' Without knowing the denotation of 'bark at the moon,' it still can be inferred to as the sound of Sisyphus complaining about his ceaseless by barking at the moon. However, barking at the moon does not affect the result because it does not solve any problems.
"squawk" (28)
'Squawk' is an unpleasant noise when complaining or protesting. By using the sound device, the poem clearly conveys the the image of how wives of workaholics do not have pleasurable lives.
- Alliteration: The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are near each other
"Folks flock from"(11)
Effect: The alliteration of letter 'f' emphasises the people who gathered to make fun of Sisyphus' useless work and the sound of letter 'f' imitates people laughing at Sisyphus.
"Stone's no sooner up" (17)
Effect: The alliteration of the letter 's' stresses Mrs. Sisyphus' frustration due to her husband's ceaseless work that does not appear to be ending any sooner.
"he is giving one hundred per cent and more to his work"(31)
Effect: By having the repetition of 'h' for 'he', 'hundred,' and 'his,' the poem emphasises Sisyphus works with exertion as he gives more than one hundred percent effort to his work.
- Sibilance: Hissing sounds represented by s, z, sh
"my smile to a twisted smirk" (29)
Effect: 'S' is an unpleasant sound that emits an unsettling atmosphere. Thus, when Mrs. Sisyphus says "my smile to a twisted smirk," she is trying to reveal how her life is currently unpleasant with Sisyphus being completely indifferent to her due to his preoccupation with his work.
- Assonance: Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words that are near each other
"moon-"(16) and "sooner"(17)
Effect: The consonance of double 'O' sound elongates the length of the words, which emphasises the length of time Sisyphus takes to roll the stone up the hill over and over again.
- End rhyme: Rhyme that occurs at the end of two or more lines of poetry
- jerk, kirk, irk, berk, dirk, cork, park, dork, quirk, lark, mark, bark, shark, shirk, dark, Ark, smirk, murk, work (-rk rhymes throughout the poem)
- gawk, hawk, squawk (-wk rhymes throughout the poem)
Effect: Constantly using the end rhyme throughout the poem demonstrates Sisyphus's boring and tedious work as well as the boredom endure by Mrs. Sisyphus.