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Poems & Prayers
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Literary Devices
Citation Note: In this section, quotations from the poems are cited by title and page number.
Rhyme
Rhyme is McConaughey’s principal literary device. Almost all the poems feature perfect rhymes, in which lines end with identical syllables, as in “Try to catch your breath with everyone you take, / forgiving to forget with every yawn you make” (41), or in “Need to lie down and rest my head, / think I’ll take a nap in my daughter’s bed” (121).
There are also some near rhymes or slant rhymes, in which last syllable vowels are identical but consonants are not. Typically, these kinds of rhymes are internal, coming in the middle of a line rather than at the end. Examples include “Just and true, she’s déjà vu” (61); “To make some space for sin to swim” (115), and “Before it even got started there was not a further question, / ‘restraining order granted!’” (178).
Couplets
The form of the poems varies greatly, but McConaughey frequently employs rhyming couplets, or two lines of verse. Sometimes the couplets are divided from each other on the printed page, as in “Shades for the Eclipse,” “Changing Lanes,” and “Split Differential.” At other times, there is no white space between the couplets, as in “Further from Hell.” Typically, the rhymes of the couplets are not repeated, so the rhyme scheme can be represented as AABBCCDD (that is, Lines 1 and 2 rhyme, as do Lines 3 and 4, and so on).
Quatrains
In addition to rhyming couplets, many of the poems employ quatrains. A quatrain comprises four lines of verse, with various possible rhyme schemes. “Daughter’s Bed,” for example, features six quatrains, each of which rhymes AABB, creating in effect rhyming couplets:
Need to lie down and rest my head,
think I’ll take a nap in my daughter’s bed.
Hopin’ on a hunch it’ll clear my mind,
slow down my clock, get me back on time (121).
More commonly, the quatrains in McConaughey’s verse have another rhyme scheme, which can be presented as ABCB, that is, lines 2 and 4 rhyme but lines 1 and 3 do not. “Truth Slave” provides an example:
When the truth comes to visit
and her presence feels your peeve,
make sure to let her in
then never let her leave (113).
“On the Outskirts of Town” is another poem written in quatrains with the same rhyme scheme:
on the outskirts of the brewery
a little closer to cold beer
where if someone gives a listen
you give a chance to hear (91).
The poems made up of quatrains usually feature much shorter lines than those made up of rhyming couplets. However, McConaughey is not concerned with keeping a regular metrical rhythm, so line lengths and syllable counts vary greatly.
Anaphora
Anaphora is a literary device in which a word or a phrase at the beginning of a line is repeated in subsequent lines to build emphasis. McConaughey often employs repetition in this manner. In “What’re You Gonna Do?,” the first three lines in every quatrain begin with the word “when” (140-41). The effect is to underscore the relentless changes one experiences in aging. The four quatrains of “Back to the Future” (59) all begin with the word “we.” The first three lines of “Sometimes” begin with “we” as well, as do four other lines in the poem. The 52 lines of the 26 rhyming couplets that make up “Mattering Matters” (195-198) all begin with the word “May,” as the poet expresses a long series of his wishes to God: “May the truth matter more than the lies / May the hows matter more than the whys” (195).
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