The Colonel

Forché’s “The Colonel” is a prose poem, or a poem that eschews traditional lineation and metrical structures. The poem consists of a single, large block of text uninterrupted by stanza breaks. For ease of reference, this guide maintains the line numbers as the text appears on the Poetry Foundation (see: Poem Text). By that version of the poem, the text is a hefty 25 lines in length. However, were the text published elsewhere, the size of the margins, page, and typeface could change the lineation without compromising the form of the poem. Properly speaking, a prose poem has no poetic lines but instead relies on other literary devices to organize its meaning and rhythm. Regardless of the lineation, “The Colonel” consists of 325 words.

Because the poem has no punctuation through line breaks, it relies heavily on syntax and the unit of the sentence. The text is lyric, imagistic, and stylized, all features of poetry, but its lack of lineation recalls more traditional prose journalism. The poem straddles journalistic reportage and lyric verse.