Pay attention to the length of the lines of this poem. They are very short, some only a word long. This draws out the poem, making it longer and slower, like the work of the bricklayer. I think this might be part of the lesson the speaker learns!
Ode to the Gentle
Bricklayer
The bricklayer
laid out
his bricks.
He mixed the lime, working
it with sand.
Unhurried, silent,
he performed his task,
setting up the ladder,
leveling
the cement.
Rounded shoulders, eyebrows
above serious eyes.
Deliberate, he came
and went in his work,
and beneath his hand
his creation
grew.
Plaster covered walls,
a column
thrust skyward,
a roof
forestalled the fury
of an angry sun.
Back and forth went
the bricklayer
his gentle
hands
working
his materials.
And by the end
of
the week,
the columns and the
arch,
children of
lime, sand,
wisdom and hands,
celebrated
simplicity, sold
and cool.
Ah, what a lesson
I learned
from the gentle bricklayer!
-Pablo Neruda
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