Composition

Outer Composition

The poem “Lemonade” by Raymond Carver has a complex outer composition. The poem looks more like a passage of prose rather than following the traditional structure of a poem. It is structured into four stanzas of different lengths. For example, the first stanza has 26 verses, the second stanza has 18 verses, the third stanza has 26 verses, and the final stanza has 22 verses. All the verses vary in length.

The poem is written in free verse and does not have a fixed rhyme scheme. Furthermore, the poem’s visual appearance is unusual. Because of its atypical form and because of enjambment, the poem looks more like a passage of prose:

When he came to my house months ago to measure
my walls for bookcases, Jim Sears didn’t look like a man
who’d lose his only child to the high waters
of the Elwha River. He was bushy-haired, confident,
cracking his knuckles, alive with energy, as we
discussed tiers, and brackets, and this oak stain
compared to that.

However, there are several poetic devices and stylistic choices that highlight Carver’s poetic technique and make “Lemonade” a poem rather than a piece of prose. 

Inner Composition

The poem “Lemonade” by Raymond Carver has a linear inner co...