A Small Needful Fact

“A Small Needful Fact” is free verse; it doesn’t follow a fixed rhyme-scheme or a fixed metrical pattern. Just because the poem is free verse, however, does not mean that it is formless. To the contrary, there are two important formal organizational features of “A Small Needful Fact.”

First, the entire poem is a single sentence, beginning with the first word of the title and ending with the period terminating the final line. This single-sentence structure embodies the continuity the poem describes: plants Garner sowed continue to grow, and Garner’s contributions to society survive his death.

Second, as one might expect from a single-sentence poem, “A Small Needful Fact” is relatively short. This brevity emphasizes that Garner’s life was cut short. It also suggests that, although the works of Garner’s hands continue, his absence is still felt. Continuity and brevity are in tension, but they do not contradict—both elements complement and underscore one another.

In poetry, when a sentence or phrase runs over one line and onto the next without terminal punctuation, this is called enjambment. The opposite of enjambment is an end-stopped line where the line is a complete unit that ends with terminal punctuation.