Rhyme Scheme

Literary Technique: Rhyme Scheme

Poem Example:

Hotel
By Philip Nikolayev

Time to recount the sparrows of the air.

Seated alone on an elected stair,

I stare as they appear and disappear.

Tonight the deck supports tremendous quiet,

although the twilight is itself a riot.

I’m glad I’m staying here, not at the Hyatt.

My pen, eye, notes, watch, whiskey glass and hell

all hang together comfortably well.

Pain is my favorite resort hotel.

Biographical Information: Born in Moscow and raised in Russia and Moldova, poet Philip Nikolayev is the son of a linguist. He grew up speaking both English and Russian and immigrated to the United States in 1990. Nikolayev earned a BA and an MA at Harvard University and a PhD at Boston University. His poetry collections include Dusk Raga (1998), Monkey Time (2003), which won a Verse prize, and Letters from Aldenderry (2006).

In his poems, Nikolayev pairs philosophical questions with daily life, frequently combining formal and experimental approaches. In an interview with Jack Alun for The Argotist Online, Nikolayev stated, “Writing is largely spontaneous for me and improvisation and self-surprise are important parts of it. ... I write in hopes that what moves or interests or surprises me may also cause a similar response in someone else—the providential reader, in Mandelstam’s phrase, if you will. Often I don’t know exactly where a poem—a certain kind of poem—leads me until the very end, where with some luck everything just happens to click sharply into focus.”

Explanation of Technique: Rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes used in a poem, usually marked by letters to symbolize correspondences. The rhyme scheme of this poem is AAA BBB CCC. The last words in the three lines of stanza one rhyme, as do the stanza two, and stanza three.

Interpretation of Poem: The poem describes a man spending his night in an old hotel. He drowns his sorrows in whiskey and writing as he recounts flighty memories. The poem has a very depressed and morose mood, and the narrator seems to be a man with many burdens and hardships. However, he doesn't simply let his sorrows hold him down, but he turns them into writing and words.

Visual Representation:

Explanation of Visual: I selected this visual because, as I read the poem, I pictured the narrator to look like this- a tired and mussed young man at his desk, papers scattered everywhere. The picture suits the mood of the poem and what it describes. Also, the lines 'My pen, eye, notes, watch, whiskey glass and hell/all hang together comfortably well,' are perfectly represented by this visual.

http://dictionary.reference.com
poetryfoundation.org