And the People Stayed Home

Kitty O’Meara

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2020

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Poetic Form and Structure

“And the People Stayed Home” is a prose poem, which means it does not consist of poetic lines with a particular metric scheme. Instead, it is arranged in six segments which look like prose paragraphs, but it is appropriate to call them stanzas because poetic devices other than meter and rhyme give them structure. Stanzas 1 and 4 contain only one short sentence, while the two stanzas following each of them are longer and elaborate the meaning of the short stanzas. Thus, the poem has two distinct halves. The first half describes the effects of the people staying home; the second half builds on the notion of personal and global healing. In addition to this overall structure—in which Stanzas 4-6 repeat the composition of Stanzas 1-3—other forms of repetition, especially anaphora and polysyndeton (detailed below), strengthen the poetic rhythm and tone of the poem.

Anaphora

Anaphora is a poetic device in which certain words or phrases appear at the beginning of successive poetic lines or stanzas. It is used throughout “And the People Stayed Home” since all stanzas begin with the same word: “And.” That is the very first word in the poem, which creates the impression that the poem’s narrative—the story it tells—starts in medias res: in the midst of action. Notable events which forced people to stay home have already happened, and the poem details the chain of consequences that follow. The use of anaphora contributes to the sense of seemingly inevitable progression from the initial critical disruption to the final beneficial transformation.

Polysyndeton

Another stylistic device that enhances the sense of inexorable movement through a series of actions and their effects is polysyndeton: using the same conjunction, most frequently “and” and “or,” to connect several clauses within the same sentence. Polysyndeton is prominent in Stanzas 2 and 6 of O’Meara’s poem, where the word “and” brings together multiple components of the poet’s vision, so that these passages come across as intense accumulations of significant details rather than random lists. (For a discussion of Biblical influence in O’Meara’s use of anaphora and polysyndeton, see Rhetorical Context.)