Rhyme- Brittany Graul

Last Hope

BY PAUL VERLAINE

Beside a humble stone, a tree A

Floats in the cemetery’s air, B

Not planted in memoriam there, B

But growing wild, uncultured, free. A

A bird comes perching there to sing, C

Winter and summer, proffering C

Its faithful song—sad, bittersweet. D

That tree, that bird are you and I: E

You, memory; absence, me, that tide F

And time record. Ah, by your side F

To live again, undying! Aye, G

To live again! But ma petite, H

Now nothingness, cold, owns my flesh. . . I

Will your love keep my memory fresh? I

Verlaine, Paul. “Last Hope.” Poetry Foundation. Web.
< http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/242788>

     Last Hope portrays deep sadness about the speaker and his love that has been lost, however, it also brings about a sense of hope for the speaker at times. With a rhyme scheme of ABBACCDEFFGHII, Last Hope by Paul Verlaine contains a multitude of rhyming all throughout the poem that ultimately  The poem is basically dominated by end rhyme, most of which is perfect rhyme, which we see with “flesh” and “fresh”, and “tide” and “side”, as well as “tree” and “free.” Most of the rhymes employed in the poem can also be classified as masculine rhymes as well, because the rhymes are ending with a stressed syllable, like with “flesh” and “fresh.” The rhyming in this poem allows it to not only flow better, but it creates a lyrical quality to the poem, which helps to support the melancholy tone. The poet varies up the rhyme scheme and the rhyming does not simply alternate between the lines, which allows the poem to use rhyming without becoming too repetitive. While most of the words at the end of each line rhyme with another word, the few lines where the last word does not rhyme with anything else seem to stand out. Each of those four lines (lines 7 & 8, and lines 11 & 12) seem to all center around the idea of the speaker and the one that he loves, and the lack of rhyming in these lines places an emphasis on this idea for the reader. The rhyming lines craft a beautiful build-up with largely background information to the small breaks in rhyme where the speaker brings up himself and his love and hints at hope for them, for which the poem is named.