"Saturday's Child" is written in quatrains with an ABAB rhyme scheme. As in many of Cullen's poems, the use of this technique allows him to emphasize pairs of images. In particular, he frequently includes two opposing things that are divided clearly by the structure of the poem. In "Saturday's Child," this comes up in the speaker's comparison of his harsh upbringing and that of privileged children. He employs this structure to similar effect in other poems.
In "Tableau," Cullen describes an interracial couple walking down the street:
Locked arm in arm they cross the way,
The black boy and the white,
The golden splendor of the day,
The sable pride of night.
By comparing them to day and night, he highlights the difference in the color of their skin. However, by using the words "pride" and "splendor" he demonstrates that they are equally beautiful and proud regardless of their differences. The sharp contrast of these two scenes is able to effectively highlight this; it shows their distinction while celebrating their shared radiance.
Similarly, in "Fruit of the Flower," the speaker describes the different qualities of his parents:
And yet my father's eyes can boast
How full his life has been;
There haunts them yet the languid ghost
Of some still sacred sin.And though my mother chants of God,
And of the mystic river,
I've seen a bit of checkered sod
Set all her flesh aquiver.
Initially, he characterizes his mother and father as quiet and serious. Then, in this excerpt, he complicates that picture. He sees a haunted past in his father's eyes and a strange impulse in his mother's skin. In both cases, he reveals this new information in the second half of the section. By making the structure of each stanza symmetrical, Cullen is better able to highlight their nuance. This choice allows him to directly contradict his initial portrayal. In all of these examples, Cullen uses pairs of contrasting images to explore competing and opposing aspects of his characters.
