Persimmons

“Persimmons” consists of 14 stanzas of free verse poetry. Free verse does not follow strict formal rules of rhyme or meter. Instead, it relies on other rhetorical and poetic devices to enhance particular aspects of the poem. First popularized by American poet Walt Whitman, free verse was later adopted by modernist and confessional poetry movements, which interpreted it as more authentic than other forms. For modernists, free verse was a way to experiment and defy traditional poetic rules; for confessionals, the form allowed direct communication of the poet’s emotional state, unfiltered by formal constraints.

The elements that give “Persimmons” structure include assonance, repetition, and enjambment. Assonance and repetition are used frequently enough in the poem to have their own dedicated sections below. Enjambment is the practice of not ending a line with a punctuation mark, thus forcing a reader not to pause at the end of a line but to continue to the next one. Lee’s most notable use of enjambment occurs between the first and second stanza, which are separated by a stanza break but connected by the lack of punctuation: “How to choose /

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