Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“Wingfoot Lake” consists of five free-verse stanzas with only slightly varied line length. The first stanza has seven lines, the second through fourth have eight lines, and the poem’s final stanza has only six lines. The stanza’s similar lengths—particularly in the middle three stanzas—provide a feeling of structure and stability like that of more traditional poetic forms. This structure, provided by the stanza length, is reinforced by how the poem orients each stanza around a particular image or scene, similar to how a prose paragraph focuses on one idea. The first stanza, for instance, focuses on Beulah’s experience at the pool, while the second stanza focuses on the picnic.
The stanza’s focus becomes a bit derailed, however, at the end of the second stanza. Dove uses enjambment in Line 15, or the last line of the second stanza, so that it continues into the third stanza. While each stanza is still focused on one idea, those ideas begin to bleed into one another in the third, fourth, and fifth stanzas using this same enjambment technique. The stanzas bleed together at roughly the same rate as the gap between Beulah and the speaker narrows—and perhaps even closes—by the last two stanzas through the use of free indirect Plus, gain access to 8,650+ more expert-written Study Guides. Including features:
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Related Titles
By Rita Dove
