The first line of Robert Creeley’s “A Wicker Basket” initiates the poem in the middle of a scene, or in media res. The grammatically conversational “Comes the time when it’s later” (Line 1) implies a series of events preceding the “later” time in the poem and infuses the scene with a sense of conclusion and reflection before any concrete events are introduced. Creeley’s second line relents and locates for the reader the poem’s scene: a table in a restaurant or bar, at least one with a “headwaiter” (Line 2). The line echoes the first in its highlighting of action: first, “comes the time” (Line 1), next “onto your table” something is placed (Line 2). The roundabout syntax of this line also works to propel the reader forward, leaving the object of the sentence hanging in suspense. Of course, the object is “the bill” (Line 3), which is placed on the table in an atmosphere of joviality, with “lively laughter” (Line 4) all around.

The poem’s second stanza continues to foreground the action in the poem, opening with the phrase, “Picking up change” (Line 5). In fact, the entire second stanza is made up of a single, long dependent clause that pushes off disclosing the grammatical subject to the following stanza.