The Rider

Naomi Shihab Nye

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1998

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“The Rider” is a free verse poem; it does not have any set rhyme scheme or meter. The poem is thirteen lines long divided into four stanzas. Nye’s choice to arrange “The Rider” in this way helps the reader navigate the poem, particularly the shifts in tenses and perspectives. The first stanza takes place as a memory in which the speaker recalls a story a boy told them in the past. By separating stanza one from stanza two, Nye creates a clear division between what the boy said and what the speaker thinks about it. Offsetting Lines 4-5 creates two separate moments. In the first, the speaker tells the boy’s story; in the second, the speaker tells their opinion of the boy’s story.

Similarly, the final two stanzas represent different moments in time, space, and point of view. Stanza three shifts the poem into the present tense with the word “tonight” (Line 6). In stanza four, Nye switches from first-person to second-person. The structure of “The Rider” is not determined by rhyme or meter, but by context and subject matter. Through the arrangement of lines and stanzas, Nye guides her reader through the poem, occupying memory, a moment in present tense, and multiple point of view shifts.

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Lastly, Nye uses rhymes sparingly in “The Rider.” For example, Lines 3 and 5 end in a near rhyme: “him” (Line 3); “champion,” (Line 5).

Personification

In “The Rider,” Nye uses personification by attributing human characteristics to nonhuman entities. In Lines 9-10, Nye personifies loneliness, giving it human qualities and form. As the speaker pedals their bicycle down the street, loneliness is left “panting behind” (Line 10). Generally, loneliness is an abstract concept, a feeling of sadness because one is isolated without friends or company. It is not physically alive. However, in “The Rider,” Nye gives loneliness human attributes. It can stalk, chase, threaten.

Loneliness is first personified in stanza one. The boy roller-skated so fast “his loneliness couldn’t catch up to him” (Line 3). Loneliness can run like someone human; it can “catch” (Line 3) like someone human. By giving loneliness these human traits, Nye develops an abstract concept into something with a specific aura or feeling. Loneliness becomes something to outrun. It becomes a dark, negative shadow that lurks behind the boy and the speaker until they’re able to use speed to outrace it. The abstraction comes to life. Nye also uses this in her poem “Kindness:” “[O]nly kindness that raises its head / from the crowds of the world to say” (Nye, Naomi Shihab. “Kindness.” 1995. Poets.org). Nye personifies kindness in “Kindness” as does loneliness in “The Rider,” giving it human characteristics.

Point of View

In stanza four, the point of view shifts from the first person to second person: “To leave your loneliness” (Line 9). Nye’s choice to suddenly change the point of view carries multiple meanings. In the white space between stanzas three and four, there is a vast transition. In stanza three, we are still in the speaker’s head as they contemplate the boy’s story and bike. In stanza four, loneliness is left behind—not by the speaker but by a “you” (Line 10).

Nye’s choice to switch the point of view alters the poem’s meaning and reach. By employing the second person in the final stanza, Nye addresses the reader directly, placing them on the seat of the bicycle. As demonstrated by the speaker, the concept of outrunning loneliness is not something that only one person can do. By writing in second person, Nye offers the power of escaping loneliness to the reader. The reader, with the implied speaker, is “[floating] free into a cloud of sudden azaleas” (Line 11). “The Rider” in the poem is defined as multiple characters—the boy, the speaker, and the reader. Similarly, the point of view is also multitudinous: The boy opens the poem with his story, the speaker’s own thoughts and actions make up the middle of the poem, and the second person “you” concludes the poem. The second person is the least used perspective in poetry. When employed by Nye, it has the ability to form a bridge and connect the reader to the poem.