To make a prairie

“To make a prairie” consists of a single stanza with five lines. The first line of the poem is the longest, with each line after being shorter and generally diminishing. The first three lines grow shorter and shorter. The fourth line gets a little longer than the second and third, before shrinking again in the fifth line. The decrease in line length correlates to the diminishing number of requirements the speaker relates are needed to create a prairie. The first three lines of the poem rhyme with one another; the first two lines both end with “bee,” while the third ends in “revery.” This rhyme on the final stress constitutes masculine rhyme, and the final stress makes the ending much more impactful and poignant. The final two lines of the poem also end with masculine rhyme: “do” (Line 4) and “few” (Line 5). The shift between the first set of rhyme and the second correlates to the shift in focus from the bee/clover to revery.

The poem follows iambic meter for the most part in each line. Iambs consist of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The second line of the poem features three of these units, making it iambic trimeter. The third and fifth lines feature two of these feet, which is called iambic dimeter. The fourth line has four of these feet, which is iambic tetrameter. In the first line, the pattern of unstressed syllable followed by stressed syllable is broken in the second foot. The first foot is still an iamb, while the second is an amphilbrach. This means that the second foot has a stressed syllable sandwiched between two unstressed syllables: “a prairie” (Line 1). After this amphilbrach, the rest of the line continues with four more iambs. This singularity in meter in the first line draws the reader’s attention to the word “prairie,” highlighting it as the focus of the poem. Overall, the even, rhythmic repetition of iambs reflects the straightforward, matter-of-fact nature of the poem’s message.