TEXTURE, in terms of design, is signified through touch. But poetry has textures as well—language itself has a texture. English language involves several linguistic textures. Words of Anglo-Saxon origin create our hardest, roughest sounds—hard stops, labials, etc. Latinate words have a softer texture; they occupy more linguistic space and involve more intricate sounds. Long vowel sounds have a more luxurious texture than short vowel sounds, and special letter combinations like “sh,” “th,” and “ph” have softer texture than “ch,” “st,” and “gl.” The way a poem sounds in terms of texture is a significant source of meaning for the poet and listener because, in some ways, texture is the source of the emotional, non-definitional meaning of words. The difference between SHUT UP and BE QUIET.

RHYTHM is the last design principle relating in this discussion, and is something probably obvious to all poets: the spoken rhythms of language, which so often lend themselves to pattern, comprise rhythm.