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Wordsworth wrote “Tintern Abbey” in blank verse, which means that end rhyme doesn’t figure prominently in the poem. For Wordsworth, the avoidance of end rhyme had an elevating effect on the pentameter line. Poets of the preceding generations had often relied on formal rhyme schemes that constrained the expression of emotion. By contrast, resisting rhyme enables poetry to sound more natural and graceful, giving in a quiet dignity that reflects, as Wordsworth writes in his preface to Lyrical Ballads, “the language really spoken by men.” But despite the lack of rhyme in the poem, “Tintern Abbey” doesn’t want for sonic interest. Wordsworth brings a lot of texture to the language using techniques like assonance and consonance. These terms refer, respectively, to the repetition of vowel and consonant sounds in nearby words. As an example, consider lines 58–65:

        And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,
     With many recognitions dim and faint,
     And somewhat of a sad perplexity,
     The picture of the mind revives again:
     While here I stand, not only with the sense
     Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
     That in this moment there is life and food
     For future years.

If you read these lines aloud to yourself, you’ll no doubt notice how each line features repeating vowel and consonant sounds that give the language a sumptuous quality. These repeating sounds indicate the care the poet took with the language, despite the poem’s lack of more obvious signs—like rhyme.

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