Lines 1-3:

O'Hara begins the poem with a simple statement of fact. Answering the implied question of the poem's title, O'Hara notes that he is not a painter for what, to him, is a very obvious reason: he is a poet. Still, the question begs a more elaborate answer, and O'Hara admits, "I think I would rather be / a painter, but I am not." (At the time, "abstract expressionist" painters, such as Jackson Pollock, had gained an enormous amount of attention in the popular press, so it was inevitable that O'Hara, what with his own involvement in the art world, would be asked why he himself had not become a painter.) The third line of the poem then ends with the word "Well," with the remainder of the sentence continuing on the next line after a stanza break.

At first, this sudden ending of the line may seem...