MueTai
10-20-2008, 04:33 AM
I have a paper to do on a poem, and I have to tell if it is in closed or open form. I know the basics, but I'm still not very confident. Here I'll post the poem:
"Grass" by Carl Sandburg
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work-
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
I notice that the poem is organized into 3 tercets with a couplet at the end, so I initially labeled it closed form. But I am unsure because there is no rhythm to it that I can make out. So what is it, open or closed form? And how can you tell?
"Grass" by Carl Sandburg
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work-
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
I notice that the poem is organized into 3 tercets with a couplet at the end, so I initially labeled it closed form. But I am unsure because there is no rhythm to it that I can make out. So what is it, open or closed form? And how can you tell?