Poetry Hacks

Verbless Sentence

What is it? A sentence of more than a few words' length not containing a verb.

What effect does it usually have? The absence of verbs places greater emphasis on the imagery of the sentence. What else should I look out for? Removing verbs from a sentence has the effect of removing tense, leaving the images hovering in a timeless space. Verblessness can also create ambiguity.

An example of how it works … The Cantos , IV by Ezra Pound:

Spotted stag of the wood; Gold, gold, a sheaf of hair

The lack of verbs, here as elsewhere in the text, helps the poet to evoke the distant world of Greek myth. The poet is evoking the death of Actaeon by presenting us with two close-ups: the unfortunate hunter's newly-grown deerskin and the golden hair of the Diana, representing her beauty, purity, and divinity.

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