Free Verse

"Blood Oranges" is written in free verse. There is no strict rhythmic pattern or rhyming scheme that would assert the author's control and make readers feel that the ideas presented here are organized by a controlling hand. This lack of structure fits with what the poem is saying: it is critical of poetry that is too intellectual, aspiring to be "lighter than air," and it would be hypocritical of this poem to depend too heavily on poetic technique, which would draw more attention to the poem itself than to the dire political situation it addresses. The lack of formal rules used here is appropriate for presenting a world in disorder, where a great, talented man like García Lorca can be murdered by thugs with no consequence.

Contrast

The poem is only one stanza, but it is divided by subject matter into three parts. In the...