21 pages 42 minutes read

John Greenleaf Whittier

Barbara Frietchie

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1863

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Literary Devices

Form and Meter

The poem is written in rhyming couplets. This means that Line 1 rhymes with Line 2, Line 3 with Line 4, and so on. The rhymes are known as perfect rhymes, with both the last vowel and consonant sounds rhyming: “corn” and “morn” (Lines 1 and 2), “sweep” and “deep” (Lines 5 and 6), “fall” and “wall” (Lines 9 and 10). On one occasion, the poet employs poetic license, using what is called an eye-rhyme, when the vowels are the same but are pronounced differently. This is “tost” and “host” (Lines 45-46). In many eye-rhymes, the two words were once pronounced in a way that rhymed, but pronunciation has shifted over time.

For the meter, the poet makes use of a combination of iambic and trochaic tetrameter. Tetrameter means that there are four poetic feet in each line. An iambic foot is comprised of an unstressed (or unaccented) syllable followed by a stressed (or accented) syllable. A trochaic foot consists of the reverse: a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Examples of iambic tetrameter include: “The clustered spires of Frederick stand” (Line 3) (the word “Frederick” scans as two syllables, not three) and “‘But spare your country’s flag,’ she said” (Line 36).

Related Titles

By John Greenleaf Whittier

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