Rita Dove: Poems Literary Elements

The action in the poem "Adolescence-II" is told from the perspective of a first-person subjective point of view.

The poems are written in free verse.

The term "holes" is used in the poem "Adolescence-II" as a metaphor to represent the emotional damage the narrator suffered throughout the years.

We have an alliteration in the line "humming as he penned in his mind another enflamed letter" in the poem "Banneker".

No ironic elements can be found in the poems.

The poem "Adolescence-II" is a meditative poem.

The action in the poem "Adolescence-II" takes place inside the narrator's bedroom during the middle of the night.

The tone in the poem "American Smooth" is a cheerful one.

The protagonist in "Canary" is the narrator and the antagonist is the person who locks the narrator away.

The major conflict in the poem "Banneker" is between the past and the present.

The poem "Canary" reaches its climax when the narrator falls asleep.

At the beginning of the poem "Canary" the narrator describes a beautiful cage. This description is used to foreshadow the later feelings of confinement the narrator will experience.

At the beginning of the poem "Banneker" the narrator claims that she is under the open sky. This is proven to be an understatement because she later admits she is inside her own home.

One of the main allusions in the poem "Banneker" is that a woman will always be seen as inferior when compared to her husband.

The term dancing is used in the poem "American Smooth" as a general term to make reference to love and the ways in which one person may try to seduce the other.

We have a personification in the poem "Canary" in the line "and the piano lulled me in".

We have a hyperbole in the line "and meditate on the heavenly bodies" in the poem "Banneker".

We have an onomatopoeia in the line "and the music was blasting" in the poem "American Smooth".