Scaffolding

“Scaffolding” is divided into a series of five couplets, or five groupings of two lines sharing the same rhyme and rhythm. Each couplet is its own stanza, or poetic paragraph. The rhyming of the couplets is known as masculine rhyme, as the final stressed syllables of each line rhyme with one another. For example, the couplets end with “building” and “scaffolding” in the first and second lines. The next couplet rhymes “points” and “joints” (Lines 3-4). The overall rhyme scheme of the entire poem can therefore be represented as follows: aa bb cc dd ee. The pattern of these paired rhyming couplets helps to create a visual representation of the scaffolding on which Heaney centers the poem. Just as scaffolding is used to construct physical and metaphorical walls in the poem, the scaffolded couplets build upon one another to create the complete poem.

The second, third, and fourth stanzas of the poem all share the same meter: iambic pentameter. An iamb is a unit of poetry, a poetic foot, consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Pentameter means there are five iambs in each poetic line. For example, Line 5 reads, “And yet all this comes down when the job’s done.”

All of the middle stanzas, or couplets, of the poem share this metrical pattern while the first stanza and the last stray from it. The first stanza features an opening line writing in trochaic pentameter—essentially the inverse of iambic pentameter—meaning it has five units of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable: “Masons, when they start upon a building” (Line 1). The second line switches meter to a stressed syllable followed by four dactylic feet, or four groupings of a stressed syllable followed by two consecutive unstressed syllables: “Are careful to test out the scaffolding” (Line 2).

The final couplet likewise differs from the rest of the couplets written in iambic pentameter. Like the first line of the poem, the final line is written in trochaic feet (though one syllable just shy of pentameter): “Confident that we have built our wall” (Line 10). The penultimate line features an irregular pattern similar to the second line of the poem: “Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall” (Line 9). The opening and final stanzas mirror one another, with the first and last lines both featuring trochaic units and the second and penultimate lines featuring an irregular rhythm. This reflection frames the poem, adding to a preciseness in construction which parallels the work of or reason for the scaffolds. The different rhythms in the opening and final stanzas draw the reader’s attention to them, highlighting the content of the poem about scaffolding doing the “work” of relationships.