She Walks In Beauty By Alyssa Ferraioli

Structure allows the reader to understand a poem because it flows easily. There are many elements that go into the structure of a poem such as meter, rhyme, stanza, and line break. A good poet will be able to use these elements to his/her advantage to better their writing. The structure of a poem gives the poet full control over the mood and flow of the poem they’re writing; this is possible by choosing appropriate or inappropriate line breaks. A poem with a firm structure such as She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron and Sleep by Alyssa Ferraioli will be better understood than a poem that is more free flowing.

The poem She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron feature rhyme and meter. The poem follows the abab rhyme scheme which means that every other line rhymes; lines 1 and 3 will rhyme and lines 2 and 4 will rhyme. Additionally, She Walks in Beauty uses meter, specifically iambic tetrameter which is when there are four unstressed syllables in each line. Iambic tetrameter makes a poem to be read with ease and give it an even rhythm. This poem is broken up into three stanzas with each stanza containing six lines and within each line, eight syllables. With a set structure such as this, the poem is more organized and better understood by the reader.

Just as Lord Byron’s poem features rhyme and a fixed number of stanzas and syllables, Ferraioli’s does the same. Sleep follows the rhyme scheme of abab also known as the alternate rhyme scheme. For this rhyme scheme to work, there are four lines per stanza. In the same way that Lord Byron’s poem includes a fixed number of syllables per line, Sleep has eight syllables per line. The structure of Ferraioli’s poem is very similar to that of Lord Byron’s; giving the reader a clear understanding of the