Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
Structured as a dialogue
Form and Meter
Free verse written in seventy-eight lines
Metaphors and Similes
The opening line starts with imagery when the poet compares a wood to a box. The poet says, “Now can you see the monument? It is of wood built somewhat like a box.” There is also a simile in the line ‘slanted like fishing-poles or flag-poles.’
Alliteration and Assonance
Alliteration is in the lines “long petals of the board, pierced with odd holes’ and “four-sided, stiff, ecclesiastical.”
Irony
The main paradox is that people can have differing views about the same object despite its similar meaning.
Genre
Narrative poem
Setting
Written in the context of representation
Tone
The tone is a sense, and the mood is reflective and curious.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the first speaker, and the antagonist is the second speaker.
Major Conflict
There is a conflict between the two speakers’ opinions regarding the monument and its symbolic meaning to the audience.
Climax
The climax is that the work of art is significant because of its symbolic meaning that defines human nature daily.
Foreshadowing
The misunderstanding of the monument between the speakers is foreshadowed by their opposing views about the work of art.
Understatement
The power of art is understated in the poem.
Allusions
The poem alludes to the significance of art in human life.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The monument is a metonymy for the significance of art.
Personification
The object described in the poem is personified
Hyperbole
N/A
Onomatopoeia
N/A
