Some Given Forms

In this chapter, Mary Oliver talks about the structure of a poem and what message or feeling is usually conveyed. To be quite honest, I have never really felt that the structure plays a major role in the process of writing, but after reading Oliver’s chapter, I understand that structure does contribute to the overall feeling of the poem perceived by the readers. Oliver mentions that “A poem requires design – a sense of orderliness” By saying so, Oliver even referred to the free verse as having some form of order that will help with the understanding of the text. While talking about the general structure of the poem, I appreciate how Oliver mentions that “No two poems are alike, not anywhere in the world, at any time, nor will there ever be one” Oliver expresses the fact that even though two poets may have the same general structure of the poem, their poems will never be alike due to the some variation implements by the author or due to their topic.

Next, Oliver mentions how stanzas are important for poetry. While she admits that the most sensible way to start a stanza is to begin with a new point, she also states that authors can start their stanzas as they wish in order to create a more meaningful poem (by hastening tempo). Here is something that I never really noticed while reading or writing poetry: A stanza break will inevitably result in either a felt hesitation or a felt acceleration. When I usually have a stanza break, I intend to start on a new train of though, rather than create the feeling of hesitation or acceleration. Either way, it was interesting to learn about this as I will attempt to keep an eye on this issue.