Wild Geese

The poem is all one continuous stanza and uses relatively straightforward punctuation and enjambment throughout its 18 lines, creating a clear and logical pattern of lineation. Enjambment is when a line breaks in the middle of a thought or sentence without punctuation. This allows some separation, and can help place emphasis, particularly on the second part of the sentence that hangs onto the next line. This is particularly evident between Lines 4 and 5, where the poet breaks the line after “body” and allows “love what it loves” (Line 5) to exist on its own. The strong image of the soft body is also left stronger by not being outshone by love. This simplicity is reflective of nature’s purity; ideas that harken back to the Transcendentalist philosophy and Romantic poetry movements. The poem is written in free verse, meaning that there is no metrical or rhyming structure. The poem is driven by the use of second person and the direct address. In doing so, the poem adopts an authoritative and directive tone in which the speaker instructs the proverbial “you.”