Post 5 Rhyme Scheme Karl Werner

I know that I shall meet my fate

Somewhere among the clouds above;

Those that I fight I do not hate,

Those that I guard I do not love;

My country is Kiltartan Cross,

My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,

No likely end could bring them loss

Or leave them happier than before.

Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,

Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,

A lonely impulse of delight

Drove to this tumult in the clouds;

I balanced all, brought all to mind,

The years to come seemed waste of breath,

A waste of breath the years behind

In balance with this life, this death.

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Yeates, William Butler. "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death." Poetry Foundation. Web. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/248416>.

This poem by William Butler Yeates is from the perspective of an Irish soldier in World War 1. He contemplates his life, knowing he shall soon meet his death "in the clouds" (in the sky, presumably piloting some sort of jet ). The rhyme scheme of this poem is  ABABCDCDEFEFGHGH. It takes a formulaic approach, using two pairs of rhymes every four lines. Most of the rhymes in this poem are perfect rhymes. This gives the poem a very cohesive feel to it. These rhymes all seem to be masculine as well (the final syllable being stressed). This poem, which focuses on how the war will not improve the lives of the narrator's countrymen, and how his own life seems worthless, is dark and hard-hitting. Use of masculine perfect rhymes help emphasize this tone. This rhyme typing takes all frivolity out of the poem, making a black affair from word to format. It allows for a cohesive poem where the focus is on the dismal lines of the poem, not on the feel of the poem or the poem's rhyme. A man who essentially condemned himself to death for lack of valuing his own life gives a poem with a masculine and straightforward rhyme scheme, and this choice could not fit any better.