Page 41 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit
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6. How is time presented in this work?
Time is presented through a series of allusions and metaphors: the Ganges river, biblical
floods, chariot races, marble-temples, and predatory birds.
7. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? Are there any lines that do not follow this scheme?
Why?
The poem is written in rhyming couplets. The lines that do not follow the scheme are lines
7-8, 23-24, and 27-28. These lines are examples of half-rhyme, lines whose rhymes are
forced to ‘fit’ because of the poem’s rhyme scheme.
8. How is this poem’s message similar to Robert Herrick’s poem, “To the Virgins, to Make
Much Time?”
Both poems encourage women to not hide away from men since time passes by too quickly.
Both poems encourage women to be open and loving with the men they care for—in this
poem’s case, particularly with the speaker.
T-23
