Rhyme- Schuler Ravencraft

To My Wife

BY J. V. CUNNINGHAM

And does the heart grow old? You know   A

In the indiscriminate green B

Of summer or in earliest snow A

A landscape is another scene, B

Inchoate and anonymous, C

And every rock and bush and drift D  

As our affections alter us C

Will alter with the season’s shift. D

So love by love we come at last, E

As through the exclusions of a rhyme, F  

Or the exactions of a past, E

To the simplicity of time, F

The antiquity of grace, where yet G

We live in terror and delight  H

With love as quiet as regret   G

And love like anger in the night. H

To My Wife by J.V. Cunningham was end rhyme along with sight rhyme. The sight rhyme is found in lines 5 and 7 with anonymous and us. The scheme is ABABCDCDEFEFGHGH. In the poem the rhymes alternate so every other line in each stanza rhymes. The rhyme scheme helps the flow of the poem and also creates a division into 4 separate stanzas. The main purpose of the poem is to discuss the continual growth and changes in a relationship. I feel that as the rhymes are every other line it could possibly reflect the change and transitions in a relationship.