Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
Speaker of the poem: in some poems, e.g. "A Wasp Woman Visits a Black Junkie in Prison", the speaker of the poem is omniscient, in others, e.g. "The Sun Came", the speaker of the poem is first-person singular.
Form and Meter
"Apology for Apostasy": three-stanza poem quatrain, ABCA rhyme scheme
Metaphors and Similes
The sun from "The Sun Came" is a metaphor of enlightenment and new beginning.
Seeing through stone from the "He Sees Through Stone" is a metaphor for wisdom that comes with experience and age.
Alliteration and Assonance
"He sees through stone
he has the secret eyes" -"He sees Through Stone", Knight Etheridge
-repetition of /s/ and /z/
Irony
The poem "At a VA Hospital in the Middle of the United States of America: An Act in a Play" shows the irony of war and war veterans who fought, some more bravely than the others, for their country and all of whom ended up with all but a glorious fate.
Genre
narrative-style poetry
Setting
All of the poems are concerned with issues of racism and injustice set in the United States.
Tone
Contemplative
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: often times the poet himself, "For Freckle-Faced Gerald" is a poem about an unfortunate young black man who fell victim to the system; Antagonist: the forces of oppression and racism.
Major Conflict
Major conflict posed in most of the poems is the issue of racism and oppression and dehumanization of black people in America.
Climax
Some poems end up with a climax of hope for the future, e.g. "A Wasp Woman Visits a Black Junkie in Prison"; while others question it, e.g. "The Sun Came".
Foreshadowing
"The verse will die—as all men do—
but not the memory of him!"- "For Malcolm, A Year After", Knight Etheridge
Understatement
"Storming the pastel sheets
Of Mama Maria’s, he got hit with a fifty
Dollar dose of syphilis." - "At a VA Hospital in the Middle of the United States of America: An Act in a Play", Knight Etheridge
Allusions
Allusion to Malcolm X in "For Malcolm, A Year After":
"Compose a verse for Malcolm man,
And make it rime and make it prim."
Metonymy and Synecdoche
A Wasp Woman - a nickname for a white woman of a higher social status.
Personification
"The sun came, Miss Brooks,—
After all the night years.
He came spitting fire from his lips." - "The Sun Came", Knight Etheridge
Hyperbole
"Soft songs, like birds, die in poison air
So my song cannot now be candy." - "Apology for Apostasy", Knight Etheridge
-The entire poem is an exaggerated proclamation of the poet's need to write poems of serious matters, to neither beautify nor soften the truth.
Onomatopoeia
"In the August grass
Struck by the last rays of sun
The cracked teacup screams." - "Haiku", Knight Etheridge
