Mark Jarman: Poems Literary Elements

The poem “Transfiguration” is told from the perspective of the main character, Jesus Christ, who recalls the events from a first person subjective point of view.

The poem “Description of Heaven and Earth” is a poem written in a heroic couplet form.

In “Ground Swell” the narrator compares the act of learning how to write with learning how to surf for the first time. The process of learning how to surf is presented as being a painful one and also a long one. Through this, the narrator also wants to transmit the idea that learning how to create literary masterpieces can be at times extremely difficult.

We find an alliteration in “Ground Swell” in the line “Is nothing real but when I was fifteen, going on sixteen”.

We find an ironic idea in the poem “Description of Heaven and Earth” where the narrator believes in the beginning he is in Hell only to discover later he is actually in Heaven.

The poem “Transfiguration” is a meditative poem.

The action described in the poem “The Supremes” takes place in the distant past at the high school the narrator used to go to.

The tone used in the poem “Transfiguration” is a desperate one.

The protagonist in “Transfiguration” is Jesus and the antagonists are those who push him to be someone who he isn’t.

The major conflict in “The Supremes” is between truth and individual perception.

“Descriptions of Heaven and Hell” reaches its climax when the narrator realizes he is already in Heaven.

In the beginning of the poem “The Supremes” the narrator mentions how his high school years were filled with sexual tension. This foreshadows the way in which the later mentioned women will be described in a highly sexual way.

In the first stanza of “Description of Heaven and Earth”, the narrator described Heaven as the place where everyone is happy and in a permanent state of pleasure. This is proven to be an understatement when the narrator realizes that life in Heaven is actually painful as well.

In the poem “Transfiguration” the author alludes the idea that sometimes, people do extraordinary things not because it is something they feel the need to do but because they feel pressured by society to do it. Through this, the author also transmits the idea that most important figures in history who were attributed as having done extraordinary things did them only because they felt the pressure to do it by those around them.

The pain described in “Description of Heaven and Earth” is used as a general way to describe the way in which humans must make sacrifices during their lifetimes in order to be accepted into Heaven in the afterlife.

The line “The parade m. c. talks up” from “The Supremes” contains a personification.

We find a hyperbole in the line “the fiery text of the thunderhead could explain it” in the poem “Transfiguration”.

We find an onomatopoeia in the line “my father laughs boomingly” in the poem “Descriptions of Heaven and Hell”.