Poetry: The Basics by Wainwright Jeffrey

Author:Wainwright, Jeffrey [Wainwright, Jeffrey]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2013-02-28T16:00:00+00:00

This first stanza of a burial poem – # 216 in the standard edition, for she gave none of her poems titles – encapsulates the variety of her rhyming. I have highlighted all the rhyming effects.

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers –

Untouched by Morning –

And untouched by Noon –

Lie the meek members of the Resurrection –

Rafter of Satin – and Roof of Stone!

(Dickinson, 1951)

The criss-crossing here is very intricate. We can see for instance how noon and stone are half-rhymes, and how they slant to bring in the s and t sounds of satin. This echo in satin and stone is especially effective because of the opposite nature of the substances associated here in the material of the coffin and the tomb, both so far from the light of noon. Similarly the assonance of rafter and satin – the one word reminding us of hardness the other of softness – combine, as do the consonants of rafter and roof. Moreover we might see in rafter an eye-rhyme – that is a combination of letters that look as though they might rhyme although they do not – with the poem’s first word safe. There are other delicate and eerie effects which help create the unnerving sense of this stanza such as the steady and then varying pace and beat of the rhythm. Then there is that astonishingly rich word alabaster whose a sounds are different from the others in that line and carries such connotations of deathly, clay-like whiteness. But the web of rhyming effects ensure complex associations between different words and lead to more and more implications. Dickinson’s brilliance lies exactly in her understanding of that fascinating paradox of rhyme: its belonging in both ‘simple’ and ‘sophisticated’ modes. It is a brief, enigmatic poem but one that shows so much of what the poet has available in rhyme and other sounds.

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