Karl Shapiro: Selected Poems Literary Elements

The poem “October 1” is told from the perspective of a third person objective point of view.

“The Alphabet” is written in free verse and as such it does not have a fixed form and meter.

The main metaphor used in the poem “Americans are Afraid of Lizards” is the lizard which is mentioned in various instances. The lizard always produces fear in the heart of the American while the other people seeing the lizard are unaffected by its presence. Because of this, the lizard is used as a metaphor for all those elements which may induce fear in a person.

We have an alliteration in the line “You go with me, You are a distant tree” in the poem “151st Psalm”.

We find an irony in the poem “Aside” when the narrator claims happiness can only be found through extreme pain and suffering.

The poem “October 1” is a meditative poem.

The action in the poem “Americans are Afraid of Lizards” takes place inside the home of an American during the duration of a day.

The tone in “151st Psalm” is a joyous one.

The protagonist in “Americans are Afraid of Lizards” is the servant woman who saves the lizard and the antagonist is the American who calls for the servant to kill the lizard.

The main conflict in “Aside” is between the present and the desire for eternity.

The poem “The Alphabet” reaches its climax when the narrator urges his readers to turn to Christianity as the true religion.

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In the beginning of the poem “Aside”, the narrator claims the poem is about the present. This is however revealed to be an understatement as the narrator focuses more on the past and on the future than on the present time.

In the poem “The Alphabet”, the narrator mentions different religions which existed in the past and some which exist even today. As the narrator describes these religions, he mentions how they are empty and have no real value. This direct criticism can be seen as an allusion towards the idea that Christianity is the true religion everyone must turn to.

“You” in the poem “151st Psalm” is a pronoun used in a general way to refer to every reader which may one day read the poem in question.

The line “The letters as strict as flames” contains a personification. The line appears in the line “The Alphabet”.

We have hyperbole in the lines “And all that is dear to the personal conscious reaches /Around us again like filings around iron magnets,” in the poem “Aside”.

The line “wooden shoes echoed across the block” contains onomatopoeia. The line appears in the poem “October 1”.