What is the rhyme scheme and structure of Derek Walcott's "The Walk"?

Derek Walcott's poem "The Walk" does not have a regular rhyme scheme. In fact, the only rhyme is in the penultimate stanza, where the second and fourth lines end in the words "clenched" and "drenched" respectively. The lack of a rhyme scheme seems appropriate given that the poem is about a writer's struggle to master the creative process. He tries to write poems but finds it difficult. Indeed, each phrase is "peeled from the flesh in bandages." The fact that there is no rhyme scheme in the poem echoes the fact that the writer is unable to establish his own creative rhythm. The one aforementioned exception, whereby the words "clenched" and "drenched" are rhymed in the penultimate stanza, is perhaps included simply to emphasize the onomatopoeic effect of the "ch" sound that is in the middle of each word. This sound, repeated, onomatopoeically echoes the writer's footsteps in the sodden, "rain-drenched" ground, and thus emphasizes the miserable, oppressive atmosphere suggested by the torrential rainfall.

In terms of the poem's structure, in the first half of the poem the speaker focuses on the pain and frustration that he now associates with the creative process. He "haemorrhag(es) poems" and "peel(s)" phrases "from the flesh." In the second half of the poem the speaker describes the place that he calls home. This place is characterized by torrential rainfall, and by a sodden track which ends in "a clump of bamboos." The speaker cannot leave this place, or is unwilling to. The structure of the poem suggests that the pain and frustration of the speaker's creative process is attributable to the oppressive but inescapable atmosphere of his home. In other words, the first half of the poem presents the consequence, and the second half of the poem presents the cause.

What is the rhyme scheme and poetic structure of Derek Walcott's "The Castaway"?

In some of the poem's stanzas, the first and third lines rhyme. In the third stanza, for example, the first line ends with the word "lie" and the third line ends with the word "multiply." When the third and final line of a stanza rhymes with the first line, there is a sense of closure, suggesting that each stanza has a distinct, separate focus. In the third stanza, for example, the speaker describes a seemingly idyllic scene as he lies in the shade of a palm tree. In the sixth stanza, the speaker begins to contemplate "nature's plan."

Structurally, the first half of the poem has an external focus. The speaker describes the scene around him. He describes "the ribbed shadow of a palm" tree, a "salt green vine with yellow trumpet-flower," and "the waves of the sea." In the second half of the poem, the speaker becomes more introspective, and thus the focus shifts from the external to the internal. For example, he compares signs of decay and maturation in the natural world to signs of his own decay. The "dog's feces" whitened in the sun reminds him that all people "end in earth," and a "yellow nut" reminds him of his own "ripe brain rotting." By structuring the poem in this way, Walcott demonstrates how the world around us can shape the thoughts and feelings that we experience.

Another interesting structural feature of the poem is that the tone, which starts off as positive, becomes darker and more morbid as the poem progresses. The poem begins with the aforementioned image of the speaker lying beneath a palm tree, and ends with images of a "ripe brain rotting," a wine bottle "choked with sand" and "a wrecked ship." This increasingly negative tone of course reflects the speaker's darkening reflections throughout the poem.