This poem displays some of the different forms of slant rhyme Dickinson made use of in her poetry. A slant rhyme is a rhyme between words with similar, but not identical, sounds. For example “soul” and “all” share l sounds but have slightly different vowel sounds, making the two words a slant rhyme. In this stanza, “feathers” and “words” rhyme in an unusual way as well. The second syllable of “feathers” is quite similar to “words.” That second syllable, however is unstressed while “words” is stressed, muting the rhyme.
