Technique no. 3 - Repetition

Technique no. 3 – Repetition.   Many poems use repeated words and phrases. Here is an extract from  Leisure by William Henry Davies

What is this life, if full of care

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see when woods we pass

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see in broad daylight

Streams full of stars like skies at night.

A poor life this if, full of care

We have no time to stand and stare.

What purpose does this repetition have? Firstly, it gives a shape to the poem: we can see that the first and last verses are almost identical, and that each of the middle stanzas begin with the same phrase “ No time to ..”.  

The insistent repetition of “no time”, “stand”, “stare” stresses the point the poet wants to make -that we have no time to stand and stare.  The last verse echoes the first verse: it’s almost repetition, but not quite. Starting and ending poems with the same lines is a common technique: the repetition signals to the reader that they have come full circle, and are back at the beginning (and therefore, paradoxically, at the end).

You can see in this poem that it has examples of all the techniques we have looked at so far: the poem is in the form of rhyming couplets (" No time to see when woods we pass/ where squirrels hide their nuts in grass");  it has alliteration (“ stand and stare”;  “ beneath the boughs” “;  “ streams full of stars").   And it has repetition.