Galway Kinnell: Poems Literary Elements

The poem ‘’The Bear’’ is told from the perspective of a first person narrator. This makes the poem seem personal and transmits the idea that the author is communicating directly with the reader.

Because these are modern poems, there is not form and meter present in the poems.

An important metaphor appears in the poem ‘’Parkinson’s Disease’’ where the narrator describes an ill man being taken care of by a woman. Towards the end of the poem, the narrator describes the man’s cheek, hardened by time and wrinkled from worrying and getting angry. The hardened face becomes a metaphor used by the narrator to suggest the possible ways in which problems may affect a person, both on the inside and on the outside.

We find an alliteration in the line "In the half darkness we look at each other and smile’’ in the poem ‘’After Making Love We Hear Footsteps’’.

In the poem ‘’Another Night in the Ruins’’, the narrator ends by noting how humans like to think of themselves as being invincible, mythological creatures capable of being born again. The narrator points however ironically how this is far from being the truth and how humans are just unimportant beings which can disappear in a moment.

The poem ‘’Another Night in the Ruins’’ is a meditative poem through which the narrator expresses his feelings and ideas.

The poem ‘’The Bear’’ is set in a forest, during wintertime.

The tone in the poem ‘’Another Night in the Ruins’’ is a depressive and pensive one.

The protagonists in the poem ‘’Parkinson’s Disease’’ are the ill man and the woman taking care of him while the antagonist is death and illness.

The major conflict in the poem ‘’Flower Herding on Mount Monadnock’’ is between peace and inner turmoil.

The poem ‘’Rapture’’ reaches its climax when the narrator grabs the woman, making her fall beside him in the bed.

The title of the poem ‘’After Making Love We Hear Footsteps’’ foreshadows the main event described in the poem, namely how the narrator and his wife are interrupted by their son after making love to one another.

No understatement can be found in any of the poems.

In the poem ‘’Rapture’’, towards the middle of the poem, the narrator opens his eyes to look at the woman with whom he slept. After describing her body, the narrator writes about how he grabbed her wrist, pulling her into bed with him and how she began to unbutton his pajamas at once. This is an allusion made to the possible sexual interaction which may have taken place between the two characters.

The term ‘’flower’’ is used in the poem ‘’Flower Herding on Mount Monadnock’’ as a general term to express an idea which can’t be achieved by the narrator.

We find a personification in the line ‘’the face softens’’ in the poem ‘’Parkinson’s Disease’’.

We find a hyperbole in the line "goes by all in one flash’’ in the poem ‘’After Making Love We Hear Footsteps’’.

We find an onomatopoeia in the line "which trudge, which groan’’ in the fifth part of the poem ‘’The Bear’’.