The Form of Formulating Forms: "Bob" by Jonah Winter Molly McAtee College

What really matters in a poem, the form or the content? While many may assume that the content reigns supreme, it actually takes both form and content to create a poem that performs properly. This is because the form is not simply a device that gives the poem consistency or order. It goes further by literally allowing the poem to take shape and giving meaning to the structure of the content that is presented. For instance, Jonah Winter’s “Bob” is a poem that truly shows how intertwined form and content are. To clarify, the general idea of the content in this poem is losing someone you love to someone else and the spiteful agony that comes with it. This is a very complex and emotional topic, which typically would take a lot of effort and literary language to even grasp the smallest details of. Yet, Winter chooses to construct the poem within a narrow and strict form, the sestina. However, while this would appear to inhibit the impact of the overall poem, Winter’s choice of form works well with his content and even furthers it to a masterful degree by allowing other techniques to shine, such as diction, tone, repetition, line breaks, and juxtaposition.

Winter’s “Bob” uses form through crafting his poem into a sestina. This type...