In This Place (An American Lyric)

“In This Place (An American Lyric)” is a free-verse poem of 13 stanzas with varying line lengths and no consistent rhyme scheme, meter, or form. Scattered rhymes do occur throughout the poem: In the second stanza features internal and end rhymes: “place” (Line 7), “grace” (Line 8), and “face” (Line 9). Rhyme is also used for emphasis, as in the very short staccato lines of Stanzas 10 and 11, which all use the same end rhyme.

The poem creates rhythm through repetition, enjambment, cadence, and strategically placed pauses. Many stanzas repeat the chant-like phrase “There’s a poem in,” building momentum. On the other hand, the eighth stanza connects the importance of truth to the ability to dream through a colon that divides a line in the middle and then creates enjambment: “a truth: that you can’t stop a dreamer / or knock down a dream” (Lines 51-52).

Structure is also created by each stanza’s mini-story, tied together by the theme of creating a lyric that is uniquely American.