"Portrait of Our Death" was composed in free verse, which means there is no rhyme or regular meter. For instance, the first stanza's four lines have 13, 14, 11, and 14 syllables; the second stanza's have 18, 12, 15 and 13.
The poem consists of eleven quatrains (four-line stanzas), and the lines feature enjambment, which means that sentences continue without a pause at the line's end to the following line.
The rhythm of the poem...
"Portrait of Our Death" was composed in free verse, which means there is no rhyme or regular meter. For instance, the first stanza's four lines have 13, 14, 11, and 14 syllables; the second stanza's have 18, 12, 15 and 13.
The poem consists of eleven quatrains (four-line stanzas), and the lines feature enjambment, which means that sentences continue without a pause at the line's end to the following line.
The rhythm of the poem is created by Kilalea's diction. The poet makes frequent use of single-syllable words (in stanza one: "there were four of us," "a dirt road which," "and went right on up") interspersed with two-syllable words ("began," "foothills," "mountains," "little," "cottage," "waiting," "driving," "slowly," "little," "hatchback") and just one three-syllable word, "following." The effect is staccato, without the possibility of stressed/unstressed syllable patterns. The poem's opening thus sounds like a simple recitation of events, and the poem in its entirety is spoken in past tense.
The enjambment of the lines and the simplicity of the diction create a conversational ("The driver, my friend, looked green") yet oddly dispassionate tone as the speaker recounts a near-death experience. Kilalea names the poem a "portrait," a depiction that records a moment in time just as a portrait captures a person in the same way.
The final stanza's lines, while still enjambed, are shorter, as the speaker increases the distance from the terrifying event, personifying Death with a capital D and exulting in both what didn't happen and what did: a fatal plunge off a cliff in a car versus an exhilarating plunge into a pool beneath a waterfall.
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