Formal Description of "Oh no we never mention Her"

The poem “Oh no we never mention her” by Thomas Haynes Bayly is about a woman whom the narrator no longer wishes to talk about as they seem to have ended their relationship on a sour note. The poem is made up of four stanzas, with each stanza made up of 8 lines, for a total of 32 lines. The poem has an inconsistent rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme, broken up by each stanza, is abcbdede fdgdhede idjdkele mndnoepe. The only rhyme pattern that sticks throughout the poem is the rhyme scheme of the words “regret,” “forget,” and “met” as they make up the last words of the sixth and eighth lines of each stanza.  These rhymes are also examples of true rhymes, as the stressed vowels sound identical. There are also a lot of E rhymes throughout the poem, consisting of the words “me,” “see,” “tree,” and “sea.”

The poem’s meter alternates steadily between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with the exception of four lines where the meter breaks. Three of these changes in the meter are present in the last stanza. The first time we see the pattern of the meter break is in line 7, where we are presented with an anapest and an iambic dimeter. The next three times where the meter breaks are in lines 27, 29, and 30. Line 27 is made up of an iambic dimeter and an anapest. Lines 29 and 30 are made up of an iambic dimeter and anapest.

Because the poem alternates steadily between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, the poem does read similarly to a song. In a few cases, the lines do seem to flow into one another, sounding as if there was an enjambment present. There are enjambments present at the end of line 3 as it reads into line 4, and at line 17 as it reads into line 18. As the poetic form of the ballad “Oh no we never mention her” only contains few deviations in meter, with the rest of the poem being fairly consistent in an alternating meter, it becomes a fluid read with lines where it is obvious that the meter does break.

Main Page of "Oh no we never mention Her"

Biography of Thomas Haynes Bayly

Explication of "Oh no we never mention Her"