Counting Descent

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2016

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Counting Descent” is written in free verse. It is 58 lines long, and all lines are roughly the same length. The lines are divided into 14 four-line stanzas and one two-line stanza at the very end.

Regular stanza breaks create a sense of rhythm for the reader. The first two stanzas are the most regular: both stanzas are one sentence long, beginning with the capitalized first word of the sentence and ending with a period. Aside from these stanzas, some are end-stopped with a period, and others begin with the first word of a sentence, but none of them have both features. Stanza 16, the last one, stands out visually for only being two lines long:

I celebrate every breath, tried to start counting

them so I wouldn’t take each one for granted.

I wish I could give my breath to the boys who

had their taken, but I’ve stopped counting

because it feels like there are too many boys

& not enough breath to go around (Lines 53-58).

This abrupt cut halfway through the sentence echoes the speaker’s empathy for the boys whose breaths were stolen prematurely. It also reflects his fear that the same fate will befall him. The period at the very end of the last line slightly tempers this effect, preventing it from being too jarring.

Diction

The speaker in the poem slightly adjusts his diction to reflect the speech of the person he is quoting. For example, he uses the word “ain’t” while telling his grandparents’ part of the story: “poor / ain’t poor unless you name it so” (Lines 13-14). He makes a similar move later when quoting his grandmother’s quip about “the Good // Lord” (Lines 20-21) only needing one day to rest. The speaker’s use of vernacular conjures his grandparent’s voice and conjures an intimate, nostalgic mood.

The speaker also plays with conventional phrasing to adjust the mood. His discussion of counting breaths in the last two stanzas evokes the cliché platitude “make every breath count.” The phrasing here assumes that breaths are a given, and it is a question of whether or not the breather will use them well. In stark contrast, the speaker in “Counting Descent” counts his breaths precisely because continued breathing isn’t guaranteed.

Enjambment

While the line lengths in “Counting Descent” are all roughly equivalent, Smith breaks them in a few different ways to different effects. One enjambment convention follows the punctuation of the sentence. The line breaks at a comma or a period. This ensures that the beginning of the next line is also the beginning of a new phrase or a new sentence. See Lines 17-18 (“[…] depending on who you ask. / She was born […]”) and Lines 35-36 (“[…] all the books in the library, / which seemed like infinity […]) for two examples. Another convention breaks the line in a way that preserves the complete phrase even without any punctuation. Lines 38-39 (“[…] I had heard my teacher say it once / when she talked […]”) and Lines 56-57 (“[…] I’ve stopped counting // because it feels like […]”) both begin a new line with a conjunction.

A third enjambment convention departs significantly from the previous two by breaking the line abruptly in the middle of a phrase. For example, “Mom said that my / head was big” (Lines 33-34) and “I celebrate every breath, tried to start counting / them” (Lines 52-53) both break at an awkward point in the middle of a sentence, separating the verb from the object. This convention creates a sense of urgency, ushering the reader into the next line to complete the incomplete phrase. It can also create a sense of discomfort, especially when it happens irregularly as it does in “Counting Descent.” The discomfort here serves the poem by evoking distress to complement the distressing content.