Again

Again
by Robert Creely

One more day gone,
done, found in
the form of days.

It began, it
ended--was
forward, backward,

slow, fast, a
sun shone, clouds,
high in the air I was

for awhile with others,
then came down
on the ground again.

No moon. A room in
a hotel--to begin
again.

There were many things that immediately caught my attention after reading this poem, most of which lead me to blog this poem. Furthermore, our presentation group had briefly discussed the aspect of rhythm and its effect on the reading of a poem. After reading this poem, I was immediately drawn to the rhythm of it and the effects it had added to it. It was clear after the reading that Creely wanted to convey the idea of a tiresome, repetitive day in which the subject repeated himself over and over each day. However, Creely was able to further this idea through his use of rhythm in which he created a repetitive structure. At first glance, you would notice the symmetry within each stanza as well as within the whole poem. It is as though each line and stanza is structured identically, adding to the idea of repetitiveness. In addition, he also decides to put numerous line breaks and punctuations within the poem, causing a slow, drawn-out reading of it. It is as though you have to pause or slow down to read the poem, adding to the idea of tiresome-repetitiveness. Furthermore, Creely inundated the poem with single syllable words causing a further sense of repetitiveness. Although he had a few multisyllable words, it focused on words that dealt with a sense of elapsed time or repetitiveness, such as "awhile", "forward,"
"backward." By having these multisyllable words placed within a bunch of single syllable words, Creely got me to focus on them as I read them causing me to realize their relation to the theme of the poem.