Internal frost is also used in “Turtle,” but there are eight to fifteen syllables per line. In poetry, the choice of tense places emphasis on important characteristics of the character. The author rhymes “four-oared” with “afford” and “lottery” with “ceramic,” so our attention goes to those words (2-3, 12-13). This reminds us that the turtle is tough but fragile; Furthermore, it does not place false hopes on things that will probably never happen. By having multiple syllables per line, Ryan places importance on the turtle's lack of power. The poem reads at a slower, more methodical pace than “Mockingbird” and has a sense of softness that the latter poem lacked. The softness reveals the turtle's patience with his lot in life, but also seems to suggest the speaker's pity towards the reptile.