Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The speaker is the author who reveals her feelings in a personal manner through her poem. Thus, the poem is narrated from a first person subjective point of view.
Form and Meter
The poem is written in a free verse form so there is no form or meter.
Metaphors and Similes
The poet compares to lovers with two trees, growing from the same root and working towards the same goal.
Alliteration and Assonance
We find alliteration in the line ‘’My father’s arms around my mother’s neck’’.
Irony
The author lets it be understood that for her, her inability to find love is ironic considering the fact that she had a perfect example in her parents.
Genre
Love poem
Setting
Because this is a meditation poem, there is no action and thus there is no place or time mentioned.
Tone
Tragic, painful
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists are the author’s parents and the antagonists are the author’s former lovers.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is an internal one and is the result of the author’s desire to find love and her inability to connect with the men in her life.
Climax
The climactic moment of the poem can be considered the moment when the author is called by her lover and when he begins crying on the phone.
Foreshadowing
The tone of the poem is foreshadowed by the second line of the poem. The line foreshadows the tragic turn the poem will take.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The author alludes that the previous lovers she had were insensible when she writes that they are made of steel and iron, two metals sometimes used in literature to suggest the idea of coldness and detachment.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
We can find personification in the lines ‘’ trees, growing to and (…), searching for the same light.’’
Hyperbole
The lines "I begin to resemble every bad memory,/every terrible fear,/every nightmare anyone has ever had.’’ could be considered as being hyperbole.
Onomatopoeia
No onomatopoeia can be found in the poem.
