Sounds of Poetry

The sounds of a poetry work set the tone, mood, and theme for the poem. The sounds of a poem are considered to be "the musical quality of poetry." In many poems rhyme scheme guides and alters the mood and overall meaning of the poem. In Housmans's "To an Athlete Dying Young"  the rhyme scheme creates a flow that the poem continues on until it changes pace, and slows, in the end because of different sorts of punctuation and a changed scheme. The sounds of the poem shift and alter the meaning, mood, and tone of the work.