Of the poems I adore most, those that provide the most excitement and resonance are those that employ one or more repetitive rhetorical devices.

Smart’s “Jubilate Agno.” Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” among others. Lorca’s “Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias.” Ginsberg’s “Howl.” Baraka’s “When We’ll Worship Jesus.” Salamun’s “I Have a Horse,” “Jonah,” “Sunflowers,” “Dead Men,” “Who’s Who,” and “I See.” Notley’s “At Night the States.” Brathwaite’s “Negus.” All of Jarnot’s Ring of Fire, but particularly “The Bridge,” “Sea Lyrics,” “Song of the Chinchilla,” “You, Armadillo,” and “Aardvark.” Gizzi’s “Revival,” “Chateau If,” and “Plain Song.” Spahr’s Fuck You, Aloha, I Love You and This Connection of Everyone with Lungs. Mullen’s “Any Lit.” Bernstein’s “War Stories.”

What is it about these devices, these repetitions that I find so interesting as a reader and as a poet?