The Wild Iris

Study Guide

Literary Devices

Rhyme

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Literary Devices Rhyme

Just as “The Wild Iris” doesn’t subscribe to a particular metrical form, it doesn’t subscribe to a particular rhyme scheme. In fact, there are virtually no rhymes in the poem at all. The only apparent rhyme in the entire poem occurs in lines 13–14:

to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth

bending a little.

Other than this one example of internal rhyme, which the reader must strain to “hear,” the poem is conspicuously free of rhyme. The noticeable lack of rhyme has important implications for the poem’s overall effect. By not using rhyme, the speaker’s address has more naturalistic and conversational quality that helps maintain their serene tone. The lack of rhyme also lends an air of solemnity to the speaker’s words. In an earlier era of English-language poetry, the presence of rhyme would have communicated a solemn sense of formality. By contrast, many twentieth-century poets have felt that rhyme is an unnatural and unnecessarily decorative device that detracts from the force of language. For this reason, the lack of rhyme in “The Wild Iris” helps preserve the solemnity of the speaker’s message. Furthermore, this solemnity gives the speaker’s message a sense of being more truthful, precisely because it comes unadorned and hence seems more honest.

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