“Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep A Gun In The House” is a free-verse poem of 20 lines divided into five unequal stanzas. There is a lack of meter and rhyme. The poem employs informal diction and relates a common experience. It is a straightforward lyric poem with narrative elements. The poem relies on the humor of the title, the common scenario of being annoyed by a situation out of one’s own control, the repetition of auditory imagery, and the transformative image of dog as musician. About formality, Collins said the following in an interview with George Plimpton:

Well, in one sense—a loose sense—I consider all my poems to be formal. I try to write poems that are a series of clear, solid lines, to give each poem a stanzaic shape, and usually to organize poems around a beginning, middle and end, or at least a distinct turn. I hope all that adds up to a certain degree of formality, an appearance of formality, anyway. The poem may not be wearing the official uniform of the

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