Aubade with Burning City

“Aubade with Burning City” is a free verse, unmetered poem of varying line and stanza lengths. Following a modern impulse, Vuong makes liberal use of enjambment, stanza breaks, and indentation throughout the poem. The most regular feature of the poem is the italicized song lyrics and dialogue, although this choice is most likely meant to reduce confusion rather than provide any sort of scaffolding. The irregular lines and stanzas invoke a naturalistic feeling, as if the poem is being composed in the moment, a choice also supported by the use of present tense. The lack of order is appropriate for the chaos and confusion of the Fall of Saigon. Looking at the page from a distance, the lines create the effect of falling here and there on the page like ash, petals, or snow.

The poet doesn’t use enjambment according to a formal rule. Vuong has spoken in interviews about the incongruity between oral storytelling and the notion of an orderly line break, so it is not surprising that Vuong would take an unregimented approach. Enjambment serves the mood of the poem by contributing to the visual structure, creating short and long lines, and by refusing to establish formal order as a solution to the chaos of the moment.