Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The poems are told from the perspective of a first person subjective narrator.
Form and Meter
The poems are written in an iambic pentameter.
Metaphors and Similes
In the poem entitled "America’’ the narrator talks about the sheer enormity of the city and how he is affected by it. The narrator claims that the city makes him feel as if a flood came and took him out his feet. This comparison is important because it shows just how overwhelmed the narrator was by the size of the city in which he was.
Alliteration and Assonance
We find alliteration in the line "I love this cultured hell that tests my youth’’.
Irony
An ironic element appears in the poem entitled "America’’ when the narrator talks about the way in which he feels as if the country where he lives is abusing him, stripping away his youth and vitality. Despite this, he still claims that he loves the country and would not like to be anywhere else.
Genre
Meditative and narrative poems
Setting
While the setting is not clearly mentioned, most of the poems take place in America, sometimes in the beginning of the 21st century.
Tone
The tone used in the poems is an optimistic one, the narrator refusing to give up and be defeated by weather forces he may see as threatening.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists in the poems are the black society and the antagonists are the whites that try to harm them.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is between the white society and the black one.
Climax
The poem "The Lynching’’ reaches its climax when the small boy reaches the heaven.
Foreshadowing
No foreshadowing can be found in the poems.
Understatement
When the narrator claims in the poem "America’’ that the cities in which he lives steal his youth is an understatement because he later claims the country gives him strength to move on and continue living.
Allusions
In the poem entitled "Flame Heart’’, the narrator talks about the things he forgot since he moved to America. He lists the things he no longer remembers but he calls that time in his life "a season’’ , thus alluding to the idea that his life will one day change and he will remember those things again.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The term "granite wonders’’ is used in the poem "America’’ as a general term to make reference to the imposing buildings existing in many American cities.
Personification
We find personification in the line "month brings the shy forget-me-not’’.
Hyperbole
We find a hyperbole in the lines "Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,/Giving me strength erect against her hate.’’
Onomatopoeia
No onomatopoeia can be found in the poems.
