Lines 1–5

In “What the Poets Could Have Been,” Baggott begins with the word, “if.” She repeats this word several times in the first lines of the poem and uses this repetitive format to imagine what poets might have done, had they not been poets, had they been able to hold their minds in check and not let their thoughts drift beyond what was expected of them. The “if” is what might have been. The title of the poem makes clear that the subject is an exploration of what poets could have been, had they been different; it points to this poem’s inquiry.

Baggott makes the differences between poets and other people clear in her opening lines. When the minds of people not destined to be poets are distracted, their thoughts turn to grocery lists. The minds of such people...