Keeping Things Whole

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Keeping Things Whole
Keeping things Whole by Mark Strand is a three-stanza poem that lacks most of what a typical poem must possess. Mark Strand does not use a regular meter, there is no rhyme scheme, and the traditional poem format gets ignored. Mark employs free verse style of poem composition.
The line breaks in the poem are intentional; Strand aims at creating an effect rat her sticking to standard poem formation. The broken lines give a feeling of two people arguing. In a way the duality effect emphasizes the core of the poem that is, being present and creating absence.
Parallelism occurs throughout the poem. For example, the speaker asserts he is ‘absence’ then later he says he is ‘what is missing.’ The repetition of the phrases helps Strand in express his feeling of emptiness.
Absence is a symbol in the poem. To keep things whole, the speaker has to be present, but his presence always means absence must occur. To keep the two going, absence and the speaker can only exist at the same time if there is movement.
1. Speaker
In the poem Keeping things Whole, the speaker adopts a minimalist approach; it is hard to identify the speaker. An assumption will make the speaker a man. The poem is in the first person. Some of the lines that confirm that the poem is in the first person are lines two, “I am the absence,” and six, “Wherever I am (Poetry Foundation).” The speaker is not wordy; maybe this is intentional to help drive the message of the poetry.

The speaker expresses feelings of isolation and absence. Throughout the poem, the speaker tells of how he feels and what he thinks of the feelings.2. Occasion
The speaker in the poem attributes his presence to the lack of wholeness. In a sense, the presence of the speaker disrupts the ordinary occurrence of nature. The speaker is a disruption in wherever he occurs and whatever he does. To keep things whole, the speaker decides always to keep moving. It is lonely for the speaker; his presence does not get acknowledged. The speaker asserts “wherever I am, I am what is missing,” “I move to keep things whole (Poetry Foundation).”3. Audience
The poem starts in a field, and that is all the reader gets from the author about the location. The area does not get described in any way. The intended audience of the poem could be anyone who can read. The poet appeals to the feelings of those who get heartbroken when their presence does not receive recognition.
4. Purpose
The author encourages people to be strong-willed. Keep moving if that makes those around you happy, appears to be the message of the speaker to the readers. Instead of staying around and causing more damage, sometimes it is better if people learned to apportion blame to themselves instead of those around them. If one’s presence is not needed, it should never get fixed on others by force; humans should always do that which makes others happy. The speaker undertakes to change people’s notions on the value of their presence in any setting.5. Subject
The subject of the poem is to keep things whole. No matter what the speaker does, his appearance translates to the absence of something else. In the last stanza, the speaker attributes his continuous moving to a mission of making everything whole. Every human has a reason for doing something, the speaker moves to keep things whole. In a way, some things cannot change their course, no matter how long one tries to make a difference. The speaker believes in fate; he chooses to keep moving in the hope that someday shifting will not be necessary anymore.
Simplicity echoes throughout the poem. The speaker uses bare-bone phrases to deliver the intended message. The straightforward nature of the wordings appears paradoxical. The speaker repeats the line, “I am the absence” to describe the present nature of his surrounding; for this to happen, the speaker must be present to tell about the absence (Poetry Foundation). The speaker craves for his presence thus the continued moving. From line 1-3 “In a field, I am the absence of the field,” the narrator keeps moving to be present.

Works Cited
Poetry Foundation. “Keeping Things Whole by Mark Strand.” Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47541/keeping-things-whole.