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Topic : Re: Using a possessive pronoun before using its antecedent in a poem I was seriously wondering if it's a problem to use the antecedent, which is "Mr Spooner", after the possessive pronoun - selfpublishingguru.com

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This doesn't break any rule of grammar. It's common enough (in general, not in poetry specifically) to have a name: cataphora.

If you use a deictic word like his to refer to something that is never mentioned in the text, that is called exophora.

Something to keep in mind is that a poem is often preceded by a title that could refer to the same thing as a third-person pronoun in the body of the poem.

Here are some poems I found from a quick search on poetryfoundation.org that use cataphora or exaphora with a third-person pronoun like his or She:

"One morn I left him in his bed", by Elizabeth Drew Barston Stoddard
"[His father carved umbrella handles...]", by Charles Reznikoff
"My Sister's Sleep", by Dante Gabriel Rossetti:

She fell asleep on Christmas Eve: [...]


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