Before the Fruit Ripens

Before the words are sung and deciphered and before the rhymes ring and themes speak to their listeners a song must establish a beat or rhythm. A competent sound pattern within a song or poem helps the language, diction, and meaning of the piece to stick in the minds of its audience like a nursery rhyme, famous speech, or Pulitzer Prize winning photo. Johnson’s poem is an excellent example of how poetry rhythm can be translated into musical beat.

One of the most effective ways in which John

son establishes rhyme in her poem is through repetition of syllable, sound, and stanza form. “I Want to Die While You Love Me” is structured into four equal stanzas that consist of four lines. The second and third lines of each stanza have 8 syllables. This even distribution of syllables, line, and stanza length creates balance and gives the poem a beat. Readers can actually tap out the syllables much like a musical tune. Also, to give her readers a sense of evenness and completion, Johnson structures her stanza in counts of two. For instance, each stanza has two rhyming lines and is four lines in length. There are four stanzas with 8 syllables in the first and third line and six in the second and last. People often find counting by twos easy and somewhat natural. Therefore Johnson’s 2,4,6,8 structure creates a sound that is comforting and pleasing to its readers.

Johnson portrays this universal feeling in her poem. The speaker wishes to die while the fruit of love is at its ripest. The “I” of the poem would rather die than have that love become old, rotten, and bitter. Since all humans, all creatures grow old and die the theme of “I Want to Die While You Love Me” can reach even those with unromantic hearts for most of the time death is not peaceful, kind, or beautiful. Therefore Johnson suggests that it is better to die young while the skin is still smooth and the heart still loves.

Probably the most obvious characteristic of poems that lend themselves well to music is that the majority of them rhyme. Rhyme is a powerful tool of sound if the author uses it skillfully and wisely. Johnson’s placement of rhyme is crucial to the flow of her poem. “I Want to Die While You Love Me” is sectioned into four, four-lines stanzas. The second and forth line of each stanza rhyme with exception of the fourth stanza. In the first stanza “four” and “hair” rhyme. In the second there is the paring of “bed” and “dead” and in t

Some topics in this essay:
Love Me”, Records Poems, Pulitzer Prize, die love, “i die, love me”, “i die love, die love me”, Die Love, line stanza, “i” “die”, Douglas Johnson’s, poem “i die, “i” “die” “while”, “w” sound, “die” “while”, sound device, poem “i, “me” “see” “be”, johnson’s “i,