Indifferent to Indentions? Read On.

William Carlos Williams uses structre more than anything else in his poem Asphodel, That Greeny Flower to explain his point. Each line is broken into three "sub-lines" which start at the same respective indent each line. By breaking up each line into three parts, Williams creates a stuttering, gasping effect. The lines "There is something / something urgent / I have to say to you / and you alone / but it must wait / while I drink in / the joy of your approach, / perhaps for the last time" suggest that the speaker is either dying or will never see the one whom he or she is talking to again. Each time the line breaks and is indented, it is almost as if the speaker is gasping for breath, panting, either from near death or a rushed run to tell what he must tell.
The speaker also speaks of blood splattered among the rocks: "Were it not for that / there would have been / no poem but the world / if we had remembered, / those crimson petals / spilled among the stones, / would have called it simply / murder." The way each lines is broken off and indented also gives a dripping effect. If we assume that the speaker is indeed dying, as the case seems to be, and is imposing his last words to her or his listener, then the drip, drip, drip of each line can also be seen as the speaker's life drip, drip, dripping away. These are the two effects accomplished by breaking up the lines and indenting each new line in such a way. Williams accomplishes both points very effectively although both effects are at first subliminal and unrealized