Final answer:
Paul Revere’s Ride is a narrative poem because it tells a story, using rhythm and rhyme to engage the reader and enhance the narrative experience. The correct answer is option d.
Step-by-step explanation:
The poem Paul Revere’s Ride is considered a narrative poem because it tells the story of Paul Revere's historic midnight ride to warn the colonial militia about the approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord. This type of poem is characterized by its ability to convey a story with a plot, characters, and a setting. Rhythm in poetry, as seen in other narrative poems like Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade, may also mimic real-world sounds, such as the galloping of horses, to enhance the storytelling experience. Moreover, the use of rhythm, rhyme, and meter throughout a poem contributes to creating a memorable and engaging narrative. For example, Ezra Pound's and Alexander Pope's works demonstrate how rhythm and rhyme can emphasize certain emotions and meanings, or establish a formal quality in verse, respectively.
Traditional narrative poems may use structured meter and rhyme schemes to provide a predictability that mirrors the unfolding of a story. This trust system between the poet and reader, akin to the consistency found in popular songs, is a distinguishing feature that supports the narrative drive and readability of the poem. Modernist poets like Walt Whitman shifted away from these norms, favoring free verse, which challenges the reader to engage with the poem's content in different ways through tone and voice, rather than through a steady, predictable rhythm and rhyme.
Overall, Paul Revere’s Ride is defined as a narrative poem because it effectively narrates a historical event through poetry, making use of the sonic qualities of language, rhythm, and sometimes rhyme, to engage the reader and underline the story being told.