Sometimes you can tell right away that you’re looking at a poem. How? Because the lines will break before they reach the right margin of the page. A verse can refer to a single line of poetry. It can also refer to a group of lines or a section of a poem. A stanza is like a poem’s paragraph; it is a group of lines bound together. Stanzas are separated by a line of space and are sometimes numbered. Read the poem “The Book of Questions” by Pablo Neruda.

Tell me, is the rose naked
or is that her only dress?

Why do trees conceal
the splendor of their roots?

Who hears the regrets
of the thieving automobile?

Is there anything in the world sadder
than a train standing in the rain?

How is this poem organized?

A
It contains four stanzas with two lines each.

B
It contains two stanzas with four lines each.

C
It contains 25 lines arranged in one stanza.

D
It does not contain any stanzas.