Eurydice

Vuong's "Eurydice" is a free verse poem, a form popular in the latter half of the 20th and 21st century among American poets. The form provides freedom for writers as it does not have a set rhyme scheme or meter. Unlike poetic forms that use meter, free verse poems do not have a strict syllable scheme per line, sentence, or stanza. Syllables measure how long a word takes to say and what portions of the word get emphasized (also called stressed) in speech. Poets can construct a meter through a pattern of stresses, the total number of syllables, or both.

"Eurydice" works as a free verse poem because it unfolds as the speaker shares their recollection with another. The form allows the poem to be rooted in the moment and emotion. The form signals the speaker’s difference from and defiance of societal structures, represented by gravity, which bends them to see what it wants them to see.

A poet creates an enjambment when they have a sentence that runs across two or more lines. Vuong enjambs every line in "Eurydice." Movement and time play an essential role in "Eurydice.