Learning to Read

Watkins Harper organized “Learning to Read” in 11 quatrains. A quatrain is a stanza of four lines, usually propelled by an alternating rhyme scheme. These schemes place the rhyme at the end of each line. Typically, the alternative scheme pairs the first with the third line and the second with the fourth line.

However, Watkins Harper modifies it. Only the second and fourth lines rhyme with each other. For example, school (Line 2) and rule (Line 4) rhyme in the first stanza, but “teachers” (Line 1) and “it” (Line 3) don’t mesh. She creates the feeling of conversation or taking a breath.

As a result, the poem engages with oral tradition. The rhyme allows easy memorization and harkens back to spirituals used to code and pass on information. Yet the modification also allows it to sound more like an organic conversation. It could also illustrate the transition between only having oral communication to having the option of written communication as well.

Watkins Harper offers an interesting use of syllables throughout “Learning to Read.” While there is no fixed number of syllables per line or stanza, they fall within a set range of numbers: Four to eight syllables per line and 24 through 28 per stanza.