Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The action in the poem "Beyond Words" is told from the perspective of a third-person subjective point of view.
Form and Meter
The poems have no form and meter because they are written in free verse.
Metaphors and Similes
In the poem "Beyond Words" the narrator urges his readers to stay on the train tracks and face the incoming train, even if it means possibly putting their own lives in danger. This action is used here as a metaphor to represent the troubles with which everyone will face at one point or another during their lives.
Alliteration and Assonance
We have an alliteration in the poem "Negative" in the line "ball-players & boxers all white as tar".
Irony
N/A
Genre
The poem "Errata" is a meditative poem about love and death.
Setting
The action in the poem "I am Trying to Break Your Heart" takes place in the narrator's home.
Tone
The tone used in the poem "Beyond Words" is a tragic one.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist in the poem "Negative" is the narrative and the rest of the black people while the antagonists are the white people.
Major Conflict
The major conflict in the poem "Ode to the Hotel Near the Children’s Hospital" is between illness and perfect health.
Climax
The poem "Errata" reaches its climax when the narrator's lover dies.
Foreshadowing
The title of the poem "Ode to the Hotel Near the Children’s Hospital" foreshadows the way in which the narrator will praise the subject he chose to discuss in the poem.
Understatement
The poem "The Mission" starts with the narrator describing graveyards and mentioning famous dead people he looks up to. This foreshadows the later description of the death of someone close to the narrator.
Allusions
The main allusion in the poem "Negative" is the idea that black people only became visible recently in our society and that even though they are more present, there is still a long way to go until blacks and whites are seen as equals.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The term "bed" is used in the poem "Ode to the Hotel Near the Children’s Hospital" as a general term to make reference to illness and death.
Personification
The pronoun you is used in "Beyond Words" as a general way to make reference to the ruling class.
Hyperbole
We have a hyperbole in the lines "I am hoping/ to hang your head/ on my wall /in shame" in the poem "I am Tring to Break your Heart".
Onomatopoeia
We have an onomatopoeia in the poem "Errata" in the line "Baby, give me just one more hiss".
