“The Sunlight on the Garden” has very compact and concentrated
form. The poem’s rhythm varies from iambic to trochaic (lines 4 and 5 of each stanza). I’ve had trouble determining what the first
and last lines of each stanza are; forcing them into iambic pentameter feels
awkward, though the poem still remains relatively fluid. Rhyme scheme is interesting to me as well.
Each stanza on their own the rhyme scheme follows :ABCBBA, though the entire
poem is ABCBBA / DEFEED / GHIHHG / AKLKKA.
MacNeice weaves end and internal rhymes intricately, using a partial
serpentine rhyme scheme, rhyming the last word of a line with the first word of
the next one, for example: The sunlight
of the garden / Hardens and grows cold … Our Freedom as free lances
/ Advances towards its end … The sky was good for flying / Defying
the church bells … etc. This
technique is maintained primarily in the first and second lines of every stanza
but can be heard in the 3rd and 4th lines as well. What this does is create a zigzagging trio of
similar rhymes in each stanza: garden, hardens, pardon (stanza 1), lances,
advances, dances (2), flying, defying, dying (3), pardon, hardened, garden
(4). Additionally, this rhyming trio
added a sense of movement reminiscent of a snake’s motion as well.
I am curious to hear thoughts on how this serpentine form
extends the themes of the poem, as snakes are often associated with gardens ,
evil, and creation/destruction (Ouroboros).
I'm really glad that you brought up the rhyme scheme, which can be awkward at times. It definitely sticks out and gives the poem that serpentine movement so that the lines kind of slither into each other. I think that the snake-like quality of the enjambment gives the poem a slightly ominous air, but it is not in and of itself an ominous poem. It's true that snakes are frequently associated with evil and trickery/deception; however, I have also read that they have been associated with fertility. In some cultures, it's because they look slightly phallic, and in others, it's because they burrow in watery areas and holes in the ground, and water is usually female/nurturing/life-giving. Snakes can mean so many different things- sometimes they represent temptation (like with Eve), sometimes they represent rejuvenation (like the caduceus as a symbol of medicine). However, the poem is not really about snakes. I think that it is first and foremost about isolation and reluctant captivity that is personified by small patches of sunlight and dreams of flight and adventure.
ReplyDeleteThe rhyme scheme definitely conveys that the poet is navigating and considering the subject matter with MacNeice saying his farewell to his wife and considering that the serpentine rhyme is being utilized in the poem. The snake in the garden represents that which should not be there. The intruder, the persuader of something that is not right. There could be a possibility that this device is being used by MacNeice to convey that the relationship was not "right." And that it was the original sin in some distant parallel type of way.
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