Break

Dorianne Laux’s “Break” is a 20-line free verse poem, meaning that there are no consistent patterns of rhyme, rhythm, or meter throughout the entirety of the piece. The poem is constructed of just one stanza, or group of lines, providing a brief but detailed look into Laux’s personal life.

Laux is not constrained by any formal requirements, but that does not mean her poetry lacks consistency. Laux’s use of internal rhyme—the corresponding sounds between words within a line of poetry and another word either at the end of the same line or within another—always occurs after the use of a caesura. A caesura is a pause in the middle of a line of poetry, typically signified by full stops or commas. Laux employs these devices together a total of three times throughout the poem, but only when the caesura is created with a full stop.

The first instance of this occurs in Line 8. Laux describes the picture coming together on the puzzle board, stating that: “We patch together porch swings and autumn / trees, matching gold to gold. We hold / the eyes of deer in our palms” (Lines 7-9). A full stop caesura creates a harsher contrast between the first and second part of the line, emphasizing the content that is introduced at that particular moment in the poem. Here, readers are forced to stop and consider this specific image of fragility, of holding something as delicate as deer eyes, and connect it to the larger concerns of the poem. The internal rhyme works to connect the two ideas, moving readers across the full stop from “gold” to “hold” with relative ease (Line 8).

The caesura in Line 10 signifies a more abrupt shift in content, moving readers from the first, more serene half of the poem (see: Poem Analysis) into the second half. Line 10 continues the descriptions of the picture within the puzzle, noting the pair of “brown shoes” that emerges as more pieces are put together (Line 10). However, on the other side of the caesura, Laux shifts from talking about the puzzle itself to her daughter circling the room she is puzzling in. “Brown shoes” rhymes with “we do” across the full stop, signaling to readers that the poem’s concerns now lie in the real world, and not in the world within the puzzle. Line 14 continues this pattern, rhyming “food” with “brood,” juxtaposing the child’s happy life against her stormy mood (Line 14).

Free verse allows Laux to play within the succinct 20 lines of “Break,” creating a dynamic meditation on family life and the process of growing up with intention and clever skill.