VOICE EXERCISE FOR VOWELS
How lively , spirited and clear your speech is depends on how
your vocal organs produce the sound of words .
Though consonants give meaning and definition to words , it
is the vowels which contain your vocal tone , which actually represent your
voice . So shape your lips nicely as you pronounce the vowels .
Here are two exercises for practice . Breathe deep , feel the
beauty of the poems , and then read slowly and with effect .
Exercise Number 1
Lull me to sleep , ye winds , whose fitful sound
Seems from some faint Aeolian harpstring caught ;
Seal up the hundred wakeful eyes of thought
As Hermes with his lyre in sleep profound
The hundred wakeful eyes of Argus bound ;
For I am weary , and am overwrought
With too much toil , with too much care distraught ,
And with the iron crown of anguish crowned .
Lay thy soft hand upon my brow and cheek ,
O peaceful sleep ! until from pain released
I breathe again uninterrupted breath !
Ah , with what subtile meaning did the Greek
Call thee the lesser mystery at the feast
Whereof the greater mystery is death !
Exercise Number 2
The splendour falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story :
The long light shakes across the lakes
And the wild cataract leaps in glory .
Blow , bugle , blow , set the wild echoes flying ,
Blow , bugle ; answer , echoes , dying , dying , dying .
O hark , O hear ! How thin and clear ,
And thinner , clearer , farther going !
O sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing !
Blow , let us hear the purple glens replying :
Blow , bugle ; answer , echoes , dying , dying , dying .
O love , they die in yon rich sky ,
They faint on hill or field or river :
Our echoes roll from soul to soul ,
And grow for ever and for ever .
Blow , bugle , blow , set the wild echoes flying ,
And answer , echoes , answer , dying , dying , dying .
