Some Days

“Some Days” is a free verse poem with five stanzas. Each stanza is a quatrain, meaning there are four lines in every stanza of the poem. Although there is no defined rhyme scheme, the quatrains add uniformity to the poem. This mirrors the human homogeny elicited from society that the poem highlights. For the first three stanzas of the poem, each exists as a sentence: The first three lines of each stanza are enjambed—meaning they lack end-stop punctuation and flow to the next line—and these stanzas all end with periods in the fourth line. Although Collins uses enjambment, he also places commas at the ends of the first three lines, offering a slight pause before the reader moves to the following line. This slows the reading and draws out the poem in a slower cadence. It isn’t rushed or fast-paced. Instead, the pacing mirrors the mundanity and sluggish pace of the “dollhouse” (Line 11) scene.

The final two stanzas equate to an eight-line question, as there is no end-stop punctuation until the question mark at the end of the final line.