Block form, also known as strophic form, is a poetic structure where each stanza is a self-contained block of lines with uniform length, meter, and sometimes rhyme scheme.
The stanzas are usually separated by line breaks, creating a visual block on the page. Block form poems allow for a clear, structured presentation of ideas, and each stanza can serve as a distinct unit of thought.
These poems are commonly used in ballads, hymns, and narrative poetry. The block format helps in emphasizing the rhythm and musicality of the poem, making it easy to remember and recite.
‘Tell the truth but tell it slant’ by Emily Dickinson is one of Dickinson’s best-loved poems. It explores an unknown “truth” that readers must interpret in their own way.
Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
‘The Fish’ by Elizabeth Bishop is considered to be one of her best poems. In it, readers can find some clues about her personal life.
I caught a tremendous fish
and held him beside the boat
half out of water, with my hook
fast in a corner of his mouth.
He didn't fight.
‘The Peace Pipe’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is the second part of the epic poem ‘The Song of Hiawatha.’
On the Mountains of the Prairie,
On the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry,
Gitche Manito, the mighty,
He the Master of Life, descending,
‘A New National Anthem’ is a prose poem expressing disapproval of the National Anthem, especially the part that was conspicuously removed.
The truth is, I’ve never cared for the National
Anthem. If you think about it, it’s not a good song.
‘To the Ladies’ by Lady Mary Chudleigh talks about how marriage rids the woman of her person and attaches her importance to the one she is married to.
Wife and servant are the same,
But only differ in the name:
For when that fatal knot is tied,
Which nothing, nothing can divide:
Li Bai’s ‘Taking Leave of a Friend’ uses different literary techniques to convey the themes of transience, nature, longing, and friendship.
Blue mountains lie beyond the north wall;
Round the city's eastern side flows the white water.
Here we part, friend, once forever.
You go ten thousand miles, drifting away
‘You should appear less often in my dreams’ by Anna Akhmatova describes the difference between a dream relationship and the one that exists in real life.
You should appear less often in my dreams,
Since we meet so frequently;
‘Anne Rutledge’ by Edgar Lee Masters is an epitaph based on the life of someone who knew and loved Abraham Lincoln in her youth.
Out of me unworthy and unknown
The vibrations of deathless music;
“With malice toward none, with charity for all.”
Out of me the forgiveness of millions toward millions,
‘Csontváry’s Flowers’ is a fascinating insight into one extraordinary artist’s view of the work of another.
The thin ribbon of sky, and thinner still,
blued hints of the easterly Carpathians
then down into the whole arboretum of blue-greens and greens
closing in around the valley town of Selmecbánya
‘First They Came’ by Pastor Martin Neimöller is a powerful poem that speaks on the nature of responsibility in times of war and persecution.
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
‘Let Us Be Midwives’ by Sadako Kurihara is a powerful war-time poem that describes a few moments of despair and a few of hope in the aftermath of the atomic bombing.
Night in the basement of a concrete structure now in ruins.
Victims of the atomic bomb jammed the room;
It was dark—not even a single candle.
The smell of fresh blood, the stench of death,
‘My Garden — like the Beach’ by Emily Dickinson is a beautiful, short poem. It compares the speaker’s garden to the beach and the summer to the sea. Read the full poem, with a complete analysis.
My Garden—like the Beach—
Denotes there be—a Sea—
That's Summer—
“On The Birth of a Son” by Su Tung-Po explores the place of intelligence in society, looking at how it actually leads to unhappiness rather than joy.
Families when a child is born
Hope it will turn out intelligent.
I, through intelligence
‘Opportunity’ by Edward Rowland Sill is a narrative poem that describes an imagined or real battle and a unique opportunity that presents itself.
‘He loved three things, alive:’ by Anna Akhmatova is a short poem in which the speaker describes her husbands likes and dislikes.
He loved three things, alive:
White peacocks, songs at eve,
And antique maps of America.
Hated when children cried,
‘Character of the Happy Warrior’ by William Wordsworth is a poem about what it means to be a “happy warrior” and what the elements of this kind of person’s life would be.
Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he
That every man in arms should wish to be?
—It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought:
‘Each and All’ by Ralph Waldo Emerson depicts nature as interconnected and dependent on all other living and non-living things. The poet uses a few clever examples to demonstrate why he sees the world this way.
Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown,
Of thee from the hill-top looking down;
The heifer that lows in the upland farm,
Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm;
‘The Song of Hiawatha’ Introduction by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is the first in a series of sections, or cantos, from the long epic poem, ‘The Song of Hiawatha.’
Should you ask me, whence these stories?
Whence these legends and traditions,
With the odors of the forest
With the dew and damp of meadows,
‘Life in a Love’ by Robert Browning is an obsessive love poem in which a speaker tells the person they’re in love with that no matter how many times they’re torn down; they’re always going to get back up.
Escape me?
Never—
Beloved!
While I am I, and you are you,
‘Paraphrase on Anacreon: Ode to the Swallow,’ is a translation of a Greek lyric poem in which the speaker explains that love constantly (and annoyingly) inhabits their heart.
Thou indeed, little Swallow,
A sweet yearly comer.
Art building a hollow
New nest every summer.
‘Columbus’ by Joaquin Miller is a perfectly rhymed poem that narrates a few moments in Columbus’ voyage to the new world. It focuses on the hardship the crew had to endure.
Behind him lay the gray Azores,
Behind the Gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghost of shores,
Before him only shoreless seas.
‘Summum Bonum’ by Robert Browning is a fairly straightforward and memorable poem about love and how it is far more important, and valuable than any beautiful summer day or shining gemstone.
All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee:
All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem:
In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea:
‘Behaving Like a Jew’ by Gerald Stern is a lyric poem with elements of an elegy. It includes poet’s understanding of how suffering and death should be approached.
When I got there the dead opossum looked like
an enormous baby sleeping on the road.
It took me only a few seconds—just
‘Jenny Kiss’d Me’ by Leigh Hunt is a powerful declaration of happiness in the face of the passage of time. A great deal of joy can be found in a single happy memory, the speaker suggests.
Jenny kiss’d me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
‘We Rise’ by Amanda Gorman is a beautiful and inspirational poem that explores women’s power. The poet emphasizes how important it is for women to raise each other and ensure everyone has a voice.
Today, everyone’s eyes
Are on us as we rise.
Today is the day women
Are paving the way,
‘A Route of Evanescence’ by Emily Dickinson describes its subject through a series of metaphors, allusions, and images. But, never actually states that the subject is a hummingbird.
A Route of Evanescence,
With a revolving Wheel –
A Resonance of Emerald
In ‘Apparently with no surprise,’ Emily Dickinson explores themes of life, death, time, and God. The poet takes the reader to a moving snapshot of life and death.
Apparently with no surprise
To any happy Flower
The Frost beheads it at it’s play –
In accidental power –
‘Courage’ by Anna Akhmatova is a passionate poem about courage in the face of war. Specifically, Akhmatova was writing about World War II.
‘February’ depicts a stunning and figurative encounter with Clarke’s familiar Welsh landscape on a snowy February day.
‘Frederick Douglass’ by Robert Hayden honors Douglass and speaks about a future in which all people, according to Douglass’ ideas of love and logic, will be treated equally without question.
support@poemanalysis.com
Poem Solutions Limited, International House, 36-38 Cornhill, London, EC3V 3NG, United Kingdom
