The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently." Blog
When I read Thomas Lux's poem "The voice you hear when you read silently", I became aware of a shift in how I think about the inner voice that accompanies one when silently reading. Lux suggests that this voice is an idealized non-physical one, clearer and more fluid than my actual speaking voice due to not being limited by pitch or tone. Since it only exists mentally, it is "heard" by an internal ear rather than produced by the body, similar to thinking to yourself. Secondly, the poem goes on to highlight how subjective reading is. Instead of encountering neutral or universal meaning, readers are immediately layered with their own memories and emotions within the words. Lux demonstrates the ability to due this by using the example of the word "barn," which can trigger different images for different people. His overall point is that reading is always collaborative between both the reader and writer, and intermixed with personal experience to shape how...