Liz

Kantor
Professor Derek Miller
English 158a
28 September 2016

Life is a Dream
Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Much like Steph, I also thought a lot about the rhyme scheme during my reading of the play. At
the beginning of the play, the text is presented in successive rhyming couplets:

ROSAURA
Dash off, wild hippogriff!


Why are you charging wind-swift down a cliff


So barren and strewn with stone


Youll only tumble headlong all alone


(I.i.1-4)

Even when a scene ends with a line without a partner, the next scene picks up with the same
rhyme, adding incredibly fluidity to the play.

CLARION
My fears deceiving me. (I.i.77)

SEGISMUND Oh, abject wretch! To bear such misery! (II.i.1)

The rhyme scheme, in conjunction with the bouncy meter, adds to the dream-like quality
because it deviates substantially from everyday speaking in an obvious way. Whereas
Shakespeares rhyming couplets occur infrequently and at the end of certain long speeches,
Calderons couplets remain consistent throughout the entire play. How they are presented,
however does change over its course. When Segismund enters for the first time, his rhyme
scheme is a bit more erratic.

SEGISMUND Oh, abject wretch! To bear such misery!


Ive struggled, heavens, night, and morn.


To comprehend what horrid crime
Was perpetrated at the time
When I, offending you, was born.
At last I grasp why cosmic scorn
Should be my portion after birth:
Your justice may enlist no dearth
Of reasons to be harsh with me
As being born, Ive come to see,
Is mankinds greatest sin on earth.
(I.ii.25-35)

The pattern is roughly A-B-C-C-B-B-D-D-A-A-D etc., and continues comparably throughout.

There is another pattern Calderon utilizes in Act II that reaffirms the same idea a little more
clearly:

SEGISMUND God save me! Whats this I perceive?


God help me grasp what Ive seen here!


Im awed and not untouched by fear


But cant be sure what to believe
Do I stand at the court today
Mid sumptuous fabrics, lush brocades,
Lithe footmen and fair chambermaids
Who serve me in their fine array?
(II.iii.1-8)

The pattern here is A-B-B-A-C-D-D-C and remains relatively consistent throughout. In this
scene, a speaker will introduce a new sound at the end of a line, interlude with a rhyming
couplet, and then return to that sound. In Segismunds speech in Act I Scene II, he would use
various rhyming patterns, but would always return to couplets with the long e sound at the
end (described as A in the pattern). The rhyme scheme reflects the battle between fate and
free will in the play, which seeps even into the diction of the characters. While they are able to
branch off from their rhymes in interesting ways occasionally free will they ultimately return
back to the same sounds fate.