Question

"To My Dear and Loving Husband" uses iambic pentameter and rhymed couplets. Track the poem's meter and check the end rhymes of each line. Do you notice any irregularities? When do irregularities appear? Do they serve to emphasize particular words or ideas?

Answer 1

When reading "To My Dear and Loving Husband," we can analyze the rhymes at the end of the lines. The poem follows a scheme of paired rhymes (AABB), however the lines "My love is such that rivers cannot quench, // Nor ought but love from thee give recompense," present an irregularity, which can be interpreted as a way of showing that only her husband can satisfy her desires. In other words, we can say that the irregularity in the rhyme was positioned exactly when the poet was referring to a force that was not natural to her husband, but external to him.