Ñapo Quichua relations of verse and structure are analyzed as they contribute to drama and the unfolding of theme in a myth narrative. The major organizational and grammatical features are examined at the level of linea, verses, stanzas, scenes, and acts. The quotative is found to be a principal marker of verses. Initial words, features of syntax, repetition, rhyme, and sound symbolism emerge as poetic features that group lines into larger units. The narrative’s theme, “becoming a jaguar,” is expressed through a rhetorical logic of onset, ongoing, and outcome that unfolds as a synecdochic relation between “the twins,” humana, and mythical jaguars. The narrative illustrates the poetic dynamics used to depict the jaguar as a “concept" (i.e., as a “sign”) in Ñapo Quichua cosmology and religión.