A Prayer for my Daughter Essay Questions

How does the work's rhyme scheme function in conjunction with its themes?

The poem follows an unusual rhyme scheme that functionally splits each eight-line stanza into two equal phonetic halves. Each stanza follows an AABBCDDC pattern, so that the opening AABB section is distinct on the level of rhyme from the subsequent CDDC one. This tracks onto the speaker's own conflicted and nuanced emotions, allowing his switch from one perspective or concern to the next to be reflected in the switch from one pattern of rhyme to the next. This is most starkly evident in the poem's final stanza, where the first four lines, following an AABB rhyme scheme, focus on the dangers of the external world whereas the latter four lines, with their CDDC rhyme scheme, shift to a contrasting focus on the value of ceremony and custom.

Discuss the symbolic function of the tree.

The speaker hopes that his daughter will grow to resemble a tree, and focuses on several specific characteristics of trees—namely their rootedness in place, their strength, and their ability to provide nurturing and safety to others. Meanwhile, as the speaker describes his hope that his daughter will be like a tree, he expresses a simultaneous desire for her thoughts to be like linnets, a type of bird. In his idealized vision of the future, his daughter's circumstances, no matter how trying, cannot separate the linnets from the tree in which they live. In other words, he hopes that his child's internal life and external life will work in harmony, with the stability and rootedness of the external providing shelter for the internal, emotional, and intellectual.