Breaks from the blue-black
skin of the water, dragging her shell
with its mossy scutes
across the shallows and through the rushes
and over the mudflats, to the uprise,
to the yellow sand,
to dig with her ungainly feet
a nest, and hunker there spewing
her white eggs down
into the darkness, and you think

—“The Turtle,”
Mary Oliver

Repetition is an important element to include in your free verse poem. Locate which word is repeated in three continuous phrases to show the slow, continued movement of the turtle in one direction.

A. laying
B. her
C. to
D. across

Break down the structure of the poem by completing each sentence.

The first stanza is mainly about

✔ the turtle's movement and actions

.

The second stanza is mainly about

✔ the reasons for the turtle's behavior

.

The third stanza is mainly about

✔ the turtle's connection to the rest of nature

Explanation:

dickinson punctuation and lines in her poems to establish a rhythm. each reader will naturally find themselves reading the poem in the same way. she uses the repeating question marks and exclamation points to convey the passion in her words. shelley uses punctuation to paint a picture in the reader's mind. for example, the ellipses after "stand in the dessert" evoke a silence, as it would feel in a deserted, old place.