"Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" is written in rhyming couplets (pairs of lines). There are six sets of these couplets, and they give the poem a bit of a sing-songy feel. The poem's subject matter—a patriarchal society, an unhappy marriage, immortality, and art—is heavy stuff, but the poem's chiming rhyme scheme makes it sound less serious than it actually is. That's why we think that the poem is spoken by a young girl. The poem's rhymes make us feel like she doesn't quite understand the gravity of her Aunt Jennifer's situation.