Like many of Momaday's poems, "To a Child Running with Outstretched Arms in Canyon de Chelly" is written in syllabic verse, meaning that the poem's lines are constructed using a given number of syllables, without regard to stress. In this case, each line of the poem contains six syllables. The poem's eight lines are divided into four-line stanzas called quatrains. Momaday employs a rhyme scheme of abca bcdd, meaning that the first line and fourth line, the second line and fifth line, etc., end in words that rhyme. This pattern of rhyme provides a symmetry within the two stanzas, but more importantly, it creates a bridge between them. The carryover of rhyme from the first stanza to the second links the subject of the first stanza (the child) to the subject of the second (the landscape of the canyon), setting the stage for their merging in the poem's...