If you know how to play poker, you know that a 2 is a very low rank card.
But if you have four of them you have a hand that is almost unbeatable, four-of-a-kind.
It's not the rank, it's the repetition.
One form of repetition is called refrain.
It's a poetic device in which you repeat an entire line in a poem or song.
For example, all Americans are familiar with first verse of the Star-Spangled Banner.
But I wonder how many know that it has three more verses than the one sung at sporting
events?
And every one of the verses ends with the identical line: "O'er the land of the free
and the home of the brave."
Four times.
Here's verse 2.
Verse 3, verse 4.
And every time that line repeats, it puts greater emphasis on it and its importance
in the context of the poem increases.
That repeated line is called a refrain.
Speaking of freedom, in 1966, Margaret Walker wrote a fierce poem about four famous slave
insurrectionists, three Black and one white.
This first verse is about Nat Turner.
This is what Turner did in 1831.
Now, here's a slight abridgement of the poem, "The Ballad of the Free."
Pause the video if you want to read it.
The poem's second verse is: (reading the words on screen)
You see how that first line and third line are identical.
It puts emphasis on that line.
That's refrain.
But Walker doesn't stop there.
The third stanza is about Gabriel Prosser, the fifth stanza is about Denmark Vesey, and
the seventh is about John Brown.
Between each of those is a repetition of those three lines I just read aloud.
And after each repetition of the refrain, it begins to ring like a bell, echoing its
dire warning through history: the serpent is loosed and the hour is come.
Our hour of reckoning has come, it suggests, and we'd better be on the right side of history.
My last example of refrain is "In Paris With You" by James Fenton.
Heads up: what follows might not be appropriate content for younger readers.
After a quick, superficial reading, I thought this was a romantic love poem.
After all, the title refers to its refrain, "In Paris with you," which is repeated four
times, plus a few variations.
Paris, you may know, is called The City of Love.
Boy, was I wrong.
After a close reading, I realized that it's more about lust and cynicism and rebound sex.
It's actually a pretty nasty poem.
And here's the part I like best every time the refrain repeats, it seems to mean something
a little different.
The first time, it sounds like it might be fairly positive he's sad, he's been drinking,
but hey, at least we're here together--but we're not quite sure yet.
I think his rhymes are funny, by the way.
Wounded-maroonded.
But the second time, he sounds positively resentful about who he is in Paris with.
He sounds bitter and disappointed: "I'm in Paris with you," not the person he actually
loves.
(That's my emphasis on the word you to underscore my interpretation.)
He admits he's on the rebound and doesn't care if this current relationship turns into
anything meaningful.
An impersonal, unloving affair is just fine.
Then there are a couple of stanzas where he says he doesn't want to go out to see the
sights.
He just wants to hang around this sleezy old hotel, spending the whole day in bed.
So the third time we see the refrain, he is saying he wants to spend the whole day in
bed in Paris with you.
The fourth time, the word Paris seems to have replaced what should, in the context, be the
word "love."
Right?
"I'm in love with your eyes."
"I'm in love with you."
But he just said five lines earlier, "Don't talk to me of love."
He is in Paris with the individual he's speaking to, but he is not in love with them.
All the meanings come together: not love but lust.
I brought you here, isn't that enough?
He resents that this person is not the person he loved, who dumped him.
He's in Paris, which should be a romantic event, but he's angry, miserable, and drunk.
This poem was definitely not what I expected.
And I like being surprised, so I like this poem.
That's enough examples, but if you're interested, you can find many other examples, like Dylan
Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."
And definitely check out a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. after crossing the Edmund
Pettis bridge from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery.
How long?
Not long!
It's magnificent.
Definitely check that out.
So, if you're writing a poem and you want to try a sophisticated technique, a new tool,
try refrain.
You'll be surprised how powerful it can be.
But one more note unlike poker, more isn't necessarily better.
Quality, not quantity.
Repeating a line twice might be better than three or more, depending on the poem.
OK, good luck with refrain.