Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
Mena's speakers are all soldiers, describing their experience of warfare.
Form and Meter
Mena uses different forms and meter, including a haiku.
Metaphors and Similes
"The dead hang from the dead like leaves"
Alliteration and Assonance
"There is always a heavy heat."
Irony
In "War Haiku," Mena shows the irony of low wages for people who make bullets.
Genre
War Poetry
Setting
As Mena himself fought in Iraq, the poems are presumably set there.
Tone
The tone is dark and sombre, but is also sometimes darkly humorous.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is often the speaker, while the antagonist is warfare.
Major Conflict
The major conflict of many of the poems is a soldier dealing with his experiences of warfare.
Climax
The climax of "How to Build a Sandcastle" is when the little girl swallows the boy whole.
Foreshadowing
The title "Marlboro Man" foreshadows that this poem will be about smoke.
Understatement
Mena's speaker tells us in "So I was a Coffin" that a soldier's more vulnerable traits must be understated and repressed.
Allusions
Mena alludes to a brand of cigarettes, Marlboro.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
Mena describes how the rigor "washes over" a soldier.
Hyperbole
"there is always a heavy heat"
Onomatopoeia
N/A
