The line use in this poem is not exactly of a normal
caliber, but not is it necessarily unique to poetry. Though I don’t know the
particular lining method the poet Benjamin used, I am able to see the way the
line breaks play into the stanzas, as well as the fact that there’s a broad use
of both enjambment and end-stopping. I think the author rotates between these
two line endings for the purpose of drawing attention to specific ideas within
the lines he writes to add to the overall meaning.
To back up, it seems to me that the poem the author has put
together tells of a person who was good at fitting himself into the situations
that arose and to make himself into the image he desired to be. This was particularly
evident to me in lines 7 through 9 “When I was hungry…up in a wristwatch,” as
well as lines16 through 18 “And when the easy...I knew what that was too.”
Having this in mind, each line break began a new part of the idea in its own separate
line, giving it the feel of being its own idea while remaining still a part of
the whole.
For example, the 4th stanza, lines 13 through 15,
reads “And the words that dissolved into hard letters, / hooked into me,
harmless, but forever hooks, / I ground down after them.” Line 14, beginning
with “hooked” is a continuation of that idea that the “hard letters” were
hooked into the speaker, but when looked at as just its own line, it becomes
the idea of simple hooks being forever in the speaker. Still, the line break
emphasizes more than anything that the “hard letters” pack a punch and were
more dangerous and impacting because the idea of hooking into someone is put up
front and on its own.
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