Minneapolis Quatrains





JJason, in his completion of this task, asserted that rhyming pictures can be thought of having two meanings - those with rhyming content, and those with similar appearances visually. Personally, I regard the second category as far more interesting; the other is just "document the fact that some nouns rhyme in your native language."

So I took a walk one evening on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis. For those that wonder about such things, I went north the entire length of the mall, taking pictures of anything visually striking along the way. I included a photo of every northbound bus shelter for the entire length of the mall. I permitted myself to go in directions other than due north, but I never went south or otherwise backtracked. Part of the time I was outside; part of the time I was inside the skyway system.

These twelve pictures are presented in chronological - and thus geographical - order. They're also arranged into quatrains. Each quatrain has the rhyme scheme:

ab
ba

One thing I noticed about putting them into the quatrains is how the rhyme calls attention to other similarities - for example, by including two storefronts with rectangular signs for the stores prominently featured (despite the differing composition of the rest of the pictures), I also find myself noticing the fact that they both represent large organizations which provide a service that makes you feel good, costs money, and ultimately isn't the healthiest in the world.

I should mention that, similar as they may look, no two of these pictures include images of the same items. The bus stops in the "a" photos of the last quatrain, in particular, are practically identical - making the visual similarity and thus the "rhyme" particularly strong.