Incident (Trethewey Poem) Literary Elements

The poem is told from a first-person point of view by an unnamed speaker. Throughout the poem, they utilize the pronoun "we," suggesting that the events within the poem are told and remembered collectively.

The poem loosely employs the pantoum form. It has no meter or rhyme scheme.

The speaker uses two similes in the poem: one in which they describe "the cross trussed like a Christmas tree" and another where they describe "a few men gathered" as being "white as angels in their gowns."

There is assonance in the -russ/-ross sounds of "at the cross trussed like a Christmas tree."

It is ironic that the Klan members bring a cross and are described like "angels," but are engaging in acts of hate.

Historical poetry

The poem is set in an unnamed small town at night, likely in the Southern United States.

Dark and eerie

The protagonist of the poem is the speaker. The antagonists of the poem are the members of the Ku Klux Klan.

The major conflict of the poem is the speaker's family and community being terrorized by Klan members burning a cross outside their homes.

The climax of the poem occurs describes the men gathered around a cross, in the third stanza.

The opening lines of the poem foreshadow the fact that speaker saw something unsettling.

The line "nothing really happened" is a understated summary of what happened that night.

The poem alludes to the historical legacy of the hate group the Ku Klux Klan, referring to the many instances in which they burned crosses at night to instill fear in Black communities.

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The line "the wicks trembling in their fonts of oil" personifies the wicks as frightened.

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