Declaration (Tracy K. Smith poem) Literary Elements

The narrator of the poem is not explicitly stated; however, it can be inferred that the poem is told from the perspective of an unnamed black person who is being held captive on the high seas by pirates.

Erasure Poetry

N/A.

"and altering fundamentally the Forms" is an example of alliteration and reinforces how brutal colonizers and enslavers were to the people they enslaved.

The narrator of the poem laments that their petitions for redress are ignored. Readers know that their petitions are ignored because they are slaves; the character in the poem doesn't know this.

Found Poetry

Though the setting of the poem is never disclosed, readers can infer that the poem is set on a pirate ship sailing the high seas.

Reflective and Solemn

The narrator and other slaves are portrayed as the protagonists; the pirates who enslaved the narrator is the antagonist.

The major conflict of the poem is between the pirates and the narrator and other people who the pirates have enslaved.

There is no climax in the poem.

The narrator's description of how poorly the pirates treat people foreshadows the pirate's unwillingness to remedy the slaves' bad situations.

Because of the poem's form, the sheer number of people that the pirates have affected is understated.

Though short, the poem is full of allusions to the history of African American oppression, the slave trade, the sea, and the history of the founding of the United States (and its documents).

He is used to refer to the group of people who have kidnapped and enslaved people.

The unnamed but destructive force that has "plundered" and "harass[ed]" the narrator and his people is personified in the poem.

Smith's poem is historically accurate and hyper-realistic; it does not make use of hyperbole.

Smith does not utilize onomatopoeia in "Declaration." Instead, she uses words that evoke visceral imagery, words like "ravaged" and "destroyed."