Discussion on Poetics - split off from previous thread.

[busker]

Thanks

How sound works:


Walking north along the point, I find a dead seal. From a few feet away, he looks like a brown log. The body is on its back, dead only a few hours. I stand and look at him. There’s a quiver in the dead flesh: My God, he’s still alive. And a shock goes through me, as if a wall of my room had fallen away

the 'o' sound of north, along, point (point is a dipthong of o)
the 'in' sound of walking and find
the 'e sound  of dead and seal
the alliteration of From, few, feet
the alliteration of looks, like
the 'o' sound of brown and log which rebounds to 'along' in the first phrase.
the alliteration of body and back, which rebounds to brown
the repetition of dead.
the 'o' sounds of  on ( its back) and only and hours ( a diphthong of o)
the 'I' sound of I (stand ) and him and quiver.
repitition of dead again.
the i sound of My, still and alive.
the 'o' sound of shock, goes ,through (dipthong)
the alliteration of if and fallen
the repition of the 'all' sound in wall and fallen.
the return of the 'w' sound in away to the first word, walking. This is called book-ending.

Sounds create both rhythm and melody or perhaps better put harmony or harmonic intonation.   They are all degrees of the same thing. .  Phonetic symbology can really analyse this but I have done my best.  When you look at language in this detail you see how sounds work.  If you analyzed dull bureaucratic or legal writing or even newspaper reporting, there would also be some harmonies but much less.  This writer is consciously or unconsciously employing words in a harmonious and rhythmic way to enchant us and creates a mild trance-like state.

Similar observations can be made about any prose extract.
This is over interpreting
There is some rhythm from the use of short sentences, and there even be meter here, haven’t looked.
But short, observational passages employing a multitude of similes makes it poetry like.