How many stanzas does this poem have?

Question

One of my classmates says three, but how can that be when there's more than three lines?

My First Memory (of Librarians)

by Nikki Giovanni

This is my first memory:

A big room with heavy wooden tables that sat on a creaky

wood floor

A line of green shades—bankers’ lights—down the center

Heavy oak chairs that were too low or maybe I was simply

too short

For me to sit in and read

So my first book was always big

In the foyer up four steps a semi-circle desk presided

To the left side the card catalogue

On the right newspapers draped over what looked like

a quilt rack

Magazines face out from the wall

The welcoming smile of my librarian

The anticipation in my heart

All those books—another world—just waiting

At my fingertips.

Answer 1

Favorite Answer

There are three. In poetry, a stanza is like a paragraph, like a line is a sentence. Each group of lines- there are three- is a stanza.

Answer 2

Your classmate was right. A new stanza simply means the poet wants your to feel a 'volta'. If the poem was split into couplets, it would contain 7 stanzas. But the poet meant it to be 3 stanzas, and that's how it should be.

Answer 3

who am i