Steve Kowit: Poetry Literary Elements

The poem 'Cutting Our Losses' is written from the first person perspective, using the pronoun 'I' and the inclusive pronoun 'we,' to convey memories.

The poem 'Lurid Confessions' is written in blank verse as one stanza.

In the poem 'Cutting Our Losses,' the car, a 'Ford Econoline,' is vandalized and robbed. This destruction is described using a series f similes: 'ripped apart like a piñata, like a tortured bird, wing window busted in, a door sprung open on its pins like an astonished beak.'

The description of one surveillance method in the poem 'Lurid Confessions,' is emphasized by alliteration, mimicking a mumbling sound as if a voice is being recorded: 'they've managed to plug a mike into one of your molars.'

The rhetorical question, 'for after my death / what possible reason could life in a any form care to exist?' in the poem 'Last Will' is used sarcastically almost.

The poem 'The Grammar Lesson,' is an educational poem.

The poem 'Cutting Our Losses' is set 'in a downtown San Jose hotel.'

The tone of the poem 'Some Clouds,' is sad and reflective, as well as mournful.

The protagonist in the poem 'Lurid Confessions,' is the an unnamed person being addressed by the speaker, who is apparently on trial.

The conflict in the poem 'Lurid Confessions,' at the beginning appears to be that the person is on trial and no one is paying attention and that they have been collecting evidence. Then, at the end, the conflict is between a result that should be positive being spun in a negative light : 'Innocent...Innocent...innocent...Right down the line. / You are carried out screaming.'

The climax of the poem 'Lurid Confessions,' is in the ending lines when the verdict is read, 'Innocent... innocent...innocent...Right don the line,' and the one being addressed in the poem is 'carried out screaming.'

In the poem 'Some Clouds,' the phrase 'It had been too lovely a morning,' is a sign that the speaker says 'should have warned,' him that something bad would happen, as if the good ought to have foreshadowed the bad.

The sentence 'A month ago my friend Nick / walked off a racquetball court, / showered, / got into this street clothes, / & halfway home collapsed and died,' in the poem 'Notice,' is an understatement as it relays Nick's death in the same manner and tone as the other actions.

In the poem 'Notice,' the reference to 'sturdy Levi's,' alludes to a brand of expensive, well-made jeans, which makes the fact they, 'suddenly tore,' more surprising.

In the poem 'Last Will,' the everyday items such as 'underpants stuck on the doorknob,' and 'dental floss lying on top of the Bhagavad Gita,' represent the life left behind after death.

In the poem 'Lurid Confessions,' the line 'The flies have folded their wings and stopped buzzing,' emphasized by alliteration, personifies the flies, as if they are ready for the verdict like the the jury.

In the poem 'Last Will,' the speaker requests the following after they die: 'If the thing can be done / without too much fuss / put the whole planet to sleep,' which is obviously impossible and therefore a hyperbolic request.

The verb 'sloshed,' in the poem 'Joy To The Fishes,' is onomatopoeia, since it creates the sound of 'a minnow,' jumping 'out of someone's baitbucket.'