Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The first-person speaker addresses her lover, telling this lover to bring forth her pain so that the speaker may hold her in tender loving care.
Form and Meter
The poem is composed of two quatrains and three tercets written in free verse.
Metaphors and Similes
Metaphors
-"Show me // the detail, the intricate embroidery / on the collar, tiny shell buttons, / the hem stitched the way you were taught" (Lines 4-7): The lover's pain is compared to a beautifully embroidered piece of clothing.
-"Empty / your basket of figs. Spill your wine" (Lines 10-11): Enjoying life and being carefree are compared to eating figs and spilling a glass of wine.
Similes
-"Spread / it out like fine rugs, silk sashes, / warm eggs, cinnamon / and cloves in burlap sacks" (Lines 2-4): The lover revealing her pain is compared to spreading out this array of fine materials and foods.
-"Unclasp it like jewels" (Line 9): The lover divulging her pain to the speaker is compared to unfastening a piece of jewelry.
-"cradling it on my tongue like the slick / seed of pomegranate" (Lines 13-14): The speaker compares witnessing her lover's pain to sucking on a pomegranate seed.
-"I would lift it // tenderly, as a great animal might / carry a small one in the private / cave of the mouth" (Lines 14-17): The speaker compares caring for her partner to the way that a large animal carries a smaller one in its mouth.
Alliteration and Assonance
Alliteration
-"silk sashes" (Line 2): The "s" sound repeats.
-"...suck it... / slick... / seed of pomegranate" (Lines 12-14): The "s" sound repeats.
Irony
N/A
Genre
Lyric Poetry, Love Poetry, Lesbian Poetry
Setting
The setting is unspecified, but the poem takes place in the context of a physical and emotional relationship between women.
Tone
Firm, Tender, Loving, Erotic
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the possibility of a healthy, honest, and intimate relationship between the speaker and her lover. The antagonist is distance between the speaker and her lover.
Major Conflict
There is no conflict that occurs directly in the poem. However, the speaker invites her partner to share her most vulnerable self, and so there is a possibility of conflict if the lover does not accept this invitation.
Climax
The climax of the poem occurs when the speaker states that she would suck on the "hard nugget" of her partner's pain.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
N/A
Hyperbole
N/A
Onomatopoeia
N/A
