Question

1. try marking the rhyme scheme in gwendolyn brooks’s “the sonnet-ballad.” what do you notice about the rhymes in the poem? how does she make use of a rhyme scheme to enhance the experience of the poem for the reader?

Explanation:

• First, map the poem's end rhymes: Lines 1/3 ("war"/"ajar"), 2/4 ("door"/"more"), 5/7 ("killed"/"cold"), 6/8 ("told"/"gold"), 9/11("breath"/"death"), 10/12("left"/"deft"), 13/14("ballad"/"sad") follow the Shakespearean sonnet pattern, with slant rhymes replacing perfect rhymes in pairs.
• The contrast between the formal, expected rhyme scheme and imperfect rhymes mirrors the speaker's struggle to conform to traditional "grieving" structures while her trauma resists neat resolution.
• The closing couplet's near-rhyme ("ballad"/"sad") instead of a perfect rhyme leaves the reader with an unresolved, uneasy feeling, mirroring the speaker's unending grief rather than a tidy emotional conclusion.

Answer:

1. The rhyme scheme of the sonnet-ballad is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, with occasional slant/near rhymes.
2. Notable traits: Consistent Shakespearean sonnet structure paired with slant rhymes that create tension between formal order and raw emotion.
3. Brooks uses the scheme to mirror the speaker's grief: the rigid ABAB-GG framework feels like forced composure, while slant rhymes (e.g., "war" / "ajar," "killed" / "cold") break that order to reflect fragmented, unresolvable sorrow, making the reader feel the speaker's conflicting desire to grieve "properly" and overwhelming pain.