Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
-"If See No End In Is" and "The Old Man at the Wheel" have and omniscient speaker of the poem with second-person singular point of view, the "you" perspective.
-"Herbert White" and "Ellen West" have the main character from the titles as the speaker of the poem with first-person singular point of view.
Form and Meter
"The Old Man at the Wheel": couplet, free verse; "If See No End In Is": sestina
Metaphors and Similes
"Now that your life nears its end
when you turn back what you see
is ruin. You think, It is a prison." -"If See No End In Is"
Alliteration and Assonance
"through the door marked Your Death" -"Stanzas Ending with the Same Two Words"
-repetition of /r/
Irony
"But he is a fool. He married
meat, and thought it was a wife." -"Ellen West"
Genre
contemporary poetry
Setting
Many of the poems are concerned with life-contemplation at the old age, others follow fictional characters to provide a glimpse into human psyche.
Tone
Contemplative
Protagonist and Antagonist
Ellen is the main protagonist of the poem "Ellen West", while her eating disorder is the antagonist. Other poems have humanity and human nature as an universal protagonist, with hardships of life being the antagonizing factors.
Major Conflict
"Herbert White" is a poem that is told from a perspective of necrophiliac serial killer, and his conflicting thoughts and efforts of detachment from his deeds.
Climax
"Herbert White" ends in a climactic proclamation of self awareness of the main character, who finally accepts that it is he who has done all the gruesome things.
Foreshadowing
"The future will be different: you cannot see
the end. What none knows is when, not if."
-"If See No End In Is" is a poem about the acceptance of death, the certainty of it and the comfort of not knowing when it will arrive.
Understatement
"Now you must drive west, which in November
means driving directly into the sun." -"The Old Man at the Wheel"
-understated way of saying life nears its end, alluding to suicide.
Allusions
"Poem Ending with a Sentence by Heath Ledger" is a self-explanatory allusion to the actor:
"Once I have the voice
that's
the line
and at
the end
of the line
is a hook
and attached
to that
is the soul."
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Why am I a girl?
I ask my doctors, and they tell me they
don’t know, that it is just “given.”
-"Ellen West" is a poem that doesn't only bring forth issues like eating disorder and mental illness, but also question gender identity, and specific gender traits.
Personification
"The grass is still hungry
above you, fed by your death." -"Stanzas Ending with the Same Two Words"
Hyperbole
"You let all the parts of that thing you would
cut out of you enter your poem..." -"The Old Man at the Wheel"
-An exaggerated way of describing poetry as a form of therapy.
Onomatopoeia
N/A
