Home After Three Months Away

The poem is in free verse, so it’s free to look how it wants. The liberty manifests in the poem’s unshaven shape. As the poem is free of meter, each line doesn’t require a specific number of iambs (unstressed and stressed syllables). Lowell clips some lines like Lines 4 and 14, while lines like Lines 5 and 30 jut out. The stanzas aren’t tidy either, as Stanza 1 contains nine lines, Stanza 2 expands to 18 lines, Stanza 3 then downsizes to 11 lines, and the final stanza becomes a couplet since it possesses just two lines.

Lowell complicates the form by introducing an elusive rhyme scheme. In Stanza 1, Lines 3 and 4 rhyme. In Stanza 2, many lines rhyme: Lines 13 and 14, Lines 19 and 20, Lines 22 and 23, Lines 24 and 25, and Lines 26 and 27. Stanza 3 features more perplexing rhymes, while Stanza 4, the couplet, doesn’t rhyme.

The intricate form reflects the state of Lowell. The free verse allows the speaker to follow his associations. He moves from a memory of the nurse to his present interaction with his child.