The poem's first line starts with the address to the landlord ("Landlord, landlord"). The use of caesura—that is, the pause that occurs within the line thanks to the insertion of the comma—adds emphasis to the call for the landlord. It works to slow down the reader, forcing the reader to pause and adding weight to each individual call for the landlord. The alliteration and assonance that occurs naturally within the repeated words allows for a smooth, lyrical reading nonetheless. These devices complement the caesura so that the pause is read as measured but not disruptive.
The speaker must call out to the landlord again and again in order to draw his attention to the leaky roof. The repetition makes it clear who the speaker is addressing while also creating a sense of urgency, as if the speaker is struggling to get the landlord's assistance. Lines 3 and 4 affirm this reading, as it becomes evident that this is already the speaker's second attempt to get the landlord's attention, as he asks:
Don't you 'member I told you about it
Way last week?
The question is rhetorical. The speaker already knows that the landlord is aware of the problems with the property—the speaker told him about it a week ago! However, the speaker must also operate within the social hierarchy that demands he, as a black man, show strict respect toward the landlord, who is presumably a white man. The tentative phrasing in the form of a question ("Don't you 'member ... ?") allows the speaker to take on a subservient role. However, the phrase "Way last week" suggests a hint of impatience—the speaker didn't just tell the landlord yesterday, he told him a full week ago. The alliteration in the phrase "Way last week" places emphasis on this fact.
The first stanza consists of four lines. The first six stanzas will mirror this structure, each one a quatrain (a four-line stanza). This pattern will be disrupted in the final seventh, eighth, and ninth stanzas, however, mirroring the increasing emotional intensity as the poem's story develops.
The first stanza also introduces patterns in rhythm and rhyme that will be carried on throughout the first six stanzas but disrupted in the final three. The poem's irregular use of iambic trimeter is introduced in line 2:
My roof has sprung a leak.
There are three feet here, read in a da-DUM (unstressed—stressed) rhythm. This rhythm will continue to appear throughout the first six stanzas, always in the second line of each of the four-line stanzas.
The first stanza further introduces an ABCB rhyme scheme:
Landlord, landlord,
My roof has sprung a leak.
Don't you 'member I told you about it
Way last week?
This pattern will also be continued until the final three stanzas. The ABCB rhyme scheme is typical of an English ballad, a poetic form often used to tell a story. "Ballad of the Landlord" fulfills this requirement, even offering a dramatic climax. The first stanza sets the stage for the story to come, introducing the characters (landlord and tenant) and the problem at hand: the dilapidated property that the landlord refuses to fix.