Rhyme in To Build a Fire

London uses “pall” in both senses of the word. On one level, we see the stark lighting that falls across the landscape. On another level, London evokes the image of a funereal pall, a piece of cloth lain upon a coffin, thus offering connotations and foreshadowings of death. There is also a subtle rhyme between the final syllable of “intangible” and “pall,” with a consonance between b and p.

This three-word phrase is an example of carefully crafted rhyme and meter. The repetition of t and l sounds gives the words a sense of connectivity. The metrical bounce—stress, unstress, stress, unstress, stress—gives the phrase a jaunty feeling, akin to that of hiking along a trail.