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Each oral poet, therefore, tends to develop his own formulaic landscape in accordance with the demands of his subject matter. In the case of Homer, for example, C.M.Bowra writes:

There is hardly a situation for which Homer has not a formulaic line or passage. He has them for all the machinery of narrative, for speech and answer, morning and evening, sleeping and waking, weapons, ships putting to sea and coming to lands, feasts and sacrifices, greeting and farewell, marriage and death.[20]

Bowra concludes that "the formula remains the foundation of improvised poetry."

In the context of oral or improvised poetry, Sri Chinmoy's work features a number of clearly defined formulaic patterns. Foremost among these are lists or progressions. They may fall into categories of time, of action, of place, of qualities or of men. Frequently the poet arranges them in order of ascending importance (the rhetorical figure auxesis) or, conversely, of descending importance. in the following poem, for example, transformation occurs within the tripartite structure on four different levels: subject, action, time and manner.

GLORIOUS IS THE PATH

    Adventurous
Is the path of prayer.
My body and I knew it.

    Glorious
Is the path of meditation.
My heart and I know it.

     Generous
Is the path of surrender.
My life and I shall know it.[21]