Natasha Trethewey's Poetry Literary Elements

Almost all of Trethewey's poems are written from the point of view of a first-person speaker. In many cases, the speaker of the poem is Trethewey herself, or a person from a historical moment she is focusing on. Her speakers are usually characterized by their reflective tone. Their language is often direct but rich with vivid imagery.

Trethewey writes in a wide variety of forms. "Native Guard" is composed of a sequence of unrhymed sonnets. "Incident" uses a slightly altered form of the pantoum.

Trethewey's poems are often full of figurative language. In "Native Guard," the speaker compares the scars on the back of a former slave to the writing in his journal: "It was then a dark man / removed his shirt, revealed the scars, crosshatched / like the lines in this journal, on his back."

Trethewey makes occasional use of alliteration and assonance in her works, though it is not a major feature of her poetry. In "Native Guard," there is assonance in the -on sounds of the line "song of bondage—dirge in the river's throat." In "Enlightenment" there is alliteration in the T sounds of the line "at Monticello, he is rendered two-toned."

The irony in Trethewey's poems often has to do with the contradictions of racial prejudice. In "Native Guard," the speaker notes the irony in the fact that he is keeping watch over Confederate prisoners who would have owned him as a slave.

The genre of Trethewey's work ranges from historical poetry to confessional poetry.

Trethewey's poems are often set in the American South.

The tone of Trethewey's poetry is commonly reflective and evocative.

The protagonists of Trethewey's poems are often members of marginalized communities. The antagonists are commonly individuals seeking to maintain structural racism.

The major conflict in most of Trethewey's work is related to race and prejudice in U.S. history.

The climax of Trethewey's poems usually comes in the penultimate stanza, when the speaker reveals hidden detail or important backstory.

In the opening of "Incident," it is foreshadowed that a family has witnessed something unnerving.

Trethewey's poems mostly avoid understatement, instead focus on the visceral details of scene, however brutal or harsh.

The poem "Enlightenment" makes allusions to various real aspects of Thomas Jefferson's biography.

Trethewey's poems do not often use metonymy or synecdoche.

In the poem "Incident," there is personification in the line: "the wicks trembling in their fonts of oil."

Trethewey's poetry does not often feature hyperbole, as she usually focuses on the concrete details of a scene.

Trethewey mostly avoids onomatopoeic words and phrases.