Languages

“Languages” is written in free verse: it has no formal rhyme scheme or meter that would ensure that the lines are standardized in some form. In choosing to write the poem in free verse, Sandburg ensures that the poem’s form (free verse) and its content (a meditation on the nature of languages) complement one another. Like the river described by the poem’s speaker, the text of the poem is free-flowing and unpredictable, winding its way through its imagery and ideas in a way that mirrors the fluid nature of language itself. The use of free verse lends the poem a dynamism that underscores the speaker’s opening claim: “There are no handles upon a language” (Line 1, italics added). In forgoing the regimentation of set rhyme and meter—both of which are potential “handles” for controlling the use of language—the speaker disavows any artificial constraints he could place upon the poem, instead giving free rein to the words, images, and ideas contained within it.