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Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Details Date Keeping Things Whole Keeping things Whole by Mark Strand is a three-stanza poem that lacks most of what a typical poem must possess. Mark Strand does not use a regular meter, there is no rhyme scheme, and the traditional poem format gets ignored. Mark employs free verse style of poem composition. The line breaks in the poem are intentional; Strand aims at creating an effect rat her sticking to standard poem formation. The broken lines give a feeling of two people arguing. In a way the duality effect emphasizes the core of the poem that is, being present and creating absence. Parallelism occurs throughout the poem. For example, the speaker asserts he is ‘absence’ then later he says he is ‘what is missing.’ The repetition of the phrases helps Strand in express his feeling of emptiness. Absence is a symbol in the poem. To keep things whole, the speaker has to be present, but his presence always means absence must occur. To keep the two going, absence and the speaker can only exist at the same time if there is movement. 1. Speaker In the poem Keeping things Whole, the speaker adopts a minimalist approach; it is hard to identify the speaker. An assumption will make the speaker a man. The poem is in the first person. Some of the lines that confirm that the poem is in the first person are lines two, "I am the absence," and six, "Wherever I am (Poetry Foundation)." The speaker is not wordy; maybe this is intentional to help drive the message of the poetry. The speaker expresses feelings of isolation and absence. Throughout the poem, the speaker tells of how he feels and what he thinks of the feelings.2.
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