Mother to Son

Study Guide

Literary Devices

Rhyme

Save

Literary Devices Rhyme

As a dramatic monologue written in free verse, it’s unsurprising that Hughes doesn’t use rhyme in “Mother to Son.” Instead of imposing the kind of rigid structure often required by rhyme, Hughes prefers to allow his speaker to address her son with the more natural cadences of everyday speech. Although casual speech may occasionally contain an inadvertent rhyme, there are virtually no rhymes of any sort in the poem. Perhaps the closest thing to a rhyme appears in lines 8–9:

But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on

The echo of the “-ime” sound does technically count as a rhyme, but since the rhyming words don’t both appear at the end of their respective lines, it isn’t a strict example of end rhyme. Nor is it a strict example of internal rhyme, which would require the words to appear in the same line. Even so, the words provide the poem’s only rhyme, which comes and goes quickly, perhaps even escaping the reader’s notice. In addition to reflecting the natural cadences of ordinary speech, the lack of rhyme is also appropriate for the poem’s subject matter. Though determined in her promotion of perseverance, the speaker doesn’t sugarcoat the difficulty of Black life in America.