By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Poems are often thought of, first and foremost, as depictions of visual scenes: the view of a landscape, the portrait of a person, the sight of something arresting and unusual. But sound, too, plays an important part in the music and rhythm of poetry, and many poets have written poems specifically addressing the experience of hearing sounds, whether it’s a strain of music or the sounds found among nature. Here are some of the very best poems about sound, hearing, noise, and related phenomena.