Little Beast

Richard Siken wrote “Little Beast” in free verse. There is no rhyme scheme and there is no identifiable meter. Some lines last for nearly 20 syllables while other lines stop at four or five syllables. The free-verse form works for a poem about chaos, violence, and legitimacy. Pre-established standards and rules don’t confine the men in the poem, and they don’t restrict Siken’s form for the poem. Siken is free to make his lines as jagged and uneven as he wants. The thorny lines add to the rough, frantic tone of the poem.

Conversely, Siken imposes order on the poem. He divides it into sections. The first and last sections feature two stanzas, and the sections in between feature one stanza apiece. The numbered sections contribute to the drama of the poem. The sections come across as separate acts or scenes. The first scene features the barbecue, the song, and the man with the buck knife; the second scene is of the peevish phone conversation; the third scene contains the riff on history and the little man; and so on and so forth.