stanza originally meant (as in 3000 years ago) “four lines” as you’d traditionally write poetry in groups of four lines
this is my poem
this is a line
this is my poem
it’s not worth your time
this is a stanza
last one was too
there are two stanzas
let’s go to the zoo
the stanza break is between those two “verses” - which is what we probably call them, casually, today
as time went on stanzas evolved to be anything you like - you can format a poem however you wish (Like how music doesn’t have to be in 3/4 time any more, and due to swing and bebop you don’t even have to play to a regimented rhythm)
In this case, I personally like how the author set up a convention by having the writers train of thought/hijinks broken by a nun banging her ruler - also breaks the meter of the poem, and changes scene by having us jump in time and space- like how in movies when you start hearing dialog from the next scene before it cuts to that scene
then the author repeats the device again, but to make us jump from an illegal abortion to a funeral scene but the shock isn’t from a loud noise it’s from realizing something terrible has happened
both of which serve as a metaphor for losing one’s innocence.
That’s great explanation, thank you! Btw, what are the indications that the last stanza was about a funeral home? I understood is as something like these girls studied in a religious school and graduated (or got kicked out) into the world of women, and the nuns click their beads thinking about these girls while they were still in school. I’m not a Christian or American, so I might be understanding things wrong.
I meant to write “funereal” rather than “funeral” — to me the author is using “saying goodbye” (to her friends lost womb) overlaid with them saying goodbye at the end of the school day with the nuns watching to draw a parallel between the two- the loss of innocence starting in an innocent place. But that’s just my reading, it’s not meant to be definitive
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