Landing Swallow

by Pamela Miller Ness

In this haiku by Michael Dylan Welch, notice how the use of meter and subtle internal rhyme reinforce the content:

landing swallow—

the ship’s chain

dips slightly

Ending a line on a stressed syllable, called a “masculine ending,” creates a sense of closure, completion, while ending on an unstressed syllable, called a “feminine ending,” creates a tension of something unresolved.

My Response

I’m grateful for this interpretation. My use of masculine or feminine endings was unconscious, or at best subconscious, an intuitive feeling for the poem’s rhythm. I remember being conscious of the rhyme, but had no hesitation in embracing it, given its naturalness, and perhaps inevitability.

—16 December 2025