To Elsie

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1945

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“To Elsie” is written in free verse, meaning it has no set form or meter. However, it is given a sense of visual balance and unity by its short, tight stanzas. There are 22 stanzas in total with three lines each, for a total of 66 lines. Each stanza is made up of a longer line, a shorter line, and then another longer line similar to an inverted haiku. Unlike a haiku, the number of syllables per line vary considerably.

The poem uses very little punctuation apart from em-dashes, which set off separate ideas. There are almost no commas and no periods, but rarely a capital letter will imply a new sentence as in “Unless it be” (Line 28) and “Somehow” (Line 59); however, it is nearly all one continuous run-on sentence. This gives the poem a sense of stream-of-consciousness, of one idea bleeding into another as the speaker examines the world around them.

Enjambment

Nearly all the lines in the poem are enjambed, meaning the sentence continues past the end of the line without a grammatical break. Each line and stanza flows continuously into the next. Sometimes it will be at a natural pause where the speaker would stop for breath—for example, “and rich young men with fine eyes” (Line 48)—while others seem to break off mid-thought, such as the standalone line “were” (Line 50) or “addressed to cheap” (Line 46).

This encourages the reader to pay special attention to the words that close each line and open each stanza. In particular, standalone words that form the shorter mid-stanza lines such as “agent—” (Line 35), “jewelry” (Line 47), or “Somehow” (Line 59) invite deeper introspection. The way they are set off from the rest of the text suggests an emphatic pause in the speech. By using stylized enjambment, the poet asks the reader to consider everyday language from multiple angles.

Alliteration

Although the poem is written in short, staccato lines, frequent use of alliteration—repeated opening sounds to words or phrases—gives it a musical quality. Examples include “pure products of America” (Line 1), “but flutter and flaunt” (Line 21), “sheer rags—succumbing” (Line 22), “some hard-pressed / house in the suburbs” (Lines 38-39), “broken / brain” (Lines 42-43), and “the stifling heat of September / Somehow / it seems” (Lines 58-60).

This literary device gives the poem a fluidity that it might otherwise have struggled to attain with its short, choppy stanzas. The alliteration supports the enjambment in making the lines feel like one continuous, unending train of thought.