Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The poems are written from a first-person subjective point of view.
Form and Meter
Because this is a collection of modern poems, there is no form and meter.
Metaphors and Similes
In the poem entitled Mouth, the term Mouth is used as a metaphor. The metaphor stands for one’s identity as it can be seen from the poem. The mouth can change in time and the poet highlights how it usually changed when one travels a lot and gets into contact with different people.
Alliteration and Assonance
We find alliteration in the line "set out on foot."
Irony
One of the ironic ideas in the poem is how the author calls the people who helped her survive on her journey to Austin as being bad-shot farmers, thus denigrating them.
Genre
Collection of poems
Setting
The action in the poems take place in different locations such as houses and forests.
Tone
The tone used in the poems is a lighthearted one and almost playful.
Protagonist and Antagonist
There is no protagonist or antagonist as the author writes about her own personal experiences.
Major Conflict
The major conflict appears to be between the poet’s desire to travel and her incapability to get enough money to support herself.
Climax
Because this is a collection of poems, there is no climactic moment. Despite this, one climactic moment could be considered the moment when the author arrived in Austin.
Foreshadowing
The fact that travel was going to be the main theme in many of the poet’s work is foreshadowed in the first poem when she explains how traveling can change a person’s mouth.
Understatement
When the author claimed that she went to Austin on foot, this may be an understatement as it may refer simply to the journey she took as an author and thus she wanted to highlight how the journey was a low and difficult one for her.
Allusions
In the poem Scout, the poet talks about how she traveled to Austin on foot. Many times, she recalls, her money would run out and she would need to make ends meet as best as she could. In those moments, she would batter her eyelashes at the men passing by. This could suggest that maybe the author sold herself to get enough money to continue traveling.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The term hound in the poems could be used in a general sense to make reference to the people who did not trusted the poet and her literary talent.
Personification
In the second poem we find a personification in the line "a sweet melody grinding."
Hyperbole
N/A
Onomatopoeia
In the second poem we can find an onomatopoeia in the line "The flutter of engines."
