The word “voice” was originally defined as an utterance from the human mouth. Thomas Lux’s, “The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently” sheds a new light upon this simple word. Lux’s description of “voice” is entirely different from the original definition. Instead of this voice escaping the human mouth, it is “caught in the dark cathedral/of your skull” (Lux 11-12). He describes it as inward, unique, and silent to all people except the individual “reading silently”. Throughout this poem, Lux expands and shares his fascinating realization of the inward voice. By using repetition and flowing structure sprinkled with vivid imagery, this poem conveys its message thoroughly and gives the reader a component to add to his unique individuality. …show more content…
One aspect of the structure is that he made himself the narrator. This is another key to the entirety of the poem and its message. Thomas Lux is a lover of books. He reads regularly. As discussed in class, Lux has a goal of reading 10,000 books before he dies. Considering he is over halfway to his goal, he has much experience with his inner voice. Studying his personal voice gave him the ability to describe it beautifully. However, Lux’s poem is not about “his” voice. It is about everyone’s voices collectively and individually. In light of this, he chose to write the poem with an omniscient point of view instead of a limited point of view. An omniscient view is appropriate because it shows Lux’s fascination and personal view with adding the possible views of others with his example of the barn. An additional aspect of the structure of the poem is how it flows from what the voice is, what it does, and how it affects individuals. Lux uses beautiful description techniques to amplify this structure. Lux begins his poem with describing what this voice is and what it is not. He describes it as an “out-loud voice in your head; it is ‘spoken’, /a voice is ‘saying’ it” (Lux 2-3). He expresses irony by illustrating that the inner voice is not out-loud at all. He continues portraying the voice by distinguishing between the writer’s voice and the reader’s voice. The writer’s words are his words, but once they are read by the reader, those words are perceived by the individual a completely different way than the writer perceived them. That is because the writer and reader have two different inward voices. Lux proceeds to explain what the voice does by the barn-example. His usage of vivid illustrations of what comes to his mind when he thinks of a barn magnifies and conveys his point. His beautiful portrayal of a barn shows that the inner voice gives individual perceptions. In view of