Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The second poem is told from the perspective of a third person subjective point of view.
Form and Meter
Every poem is written in a narrative style, with exactly forty-seven lines without any rhyme or rhythm.
Metaphors and Similes
In the first poem in the collection, the narrator compares writing with a powerful wind which blows through the leaves of a great old tree. The wind becomes used here as a metaphor, representing the way in which literature has the power to influence people and change their lives completely.
Alliteration and Assonance
We have an alliteration in the eight poem in the line “I’d open the curtains for light, you know how the families are”.
Irony
We have an ironic element in the ninth poem when the narrator, instead of linking light and the sun with happiness and joy links it with panic and distress.
Genre
All the poems are narrative autobiographical.
Setting
The action described in the second poem takes place in an unnamed city at an unnamed period in the past.
Tone
The tone in the third poem is a dramatic one.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists in the seventh poem are those who jump into the sea while the antagonists are those who are too afraid to take the risk.
Major Conflict
The major conflict in the eleventh poem is between the strictness with which the mother treated her children and the kindness of the father.
Climax
The sixth poem reaches its climax when the narrator and her lover break up.
Foreshadowing
In the beginning of the twelfth poem, the narrator asks if her soul was assigned at birth as belonging to another person. This question foreshadows the narrator’s feelings of not having complete control over herself.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The main allusion which can be found in the seventh poem is the idea that without taking risks, many will end up living a boring life, wishing they had done something more exciting at one point in their lives.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The red car is used in the eight poem as a general term to make reference to the changes a person may experience at one point in their lives.
Personification
We have a personification in the fourth poem in the line “the room jiggles”.
Hyperbole
We have a hyperbole in the tenth poem in the line “which seem to be entering the world from one spot in the sky”.
Onomatopoeia
We have an onomatopoeia in the sixth poem in the line “The water sang to me”.
