Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The poetic persona or the poet, Yusef, is the speaker. Most of the poems are written in first person.
Form and Meter
Komunyakaa's poems are modern so that they have no particular form and meter.
Metaphors and Similes
"My black face fades/ hiding inside the black granite" (Facing It) in this line the poet compares his physical appearance to granite. "I'm stone" (Facing It), here stone is a metaphor. "Her voice smelled like an orange" (English), Yusef compares the smell of the girl to an orange.
Alliteration and Assonance
"livestock, stone & slab", "locust leaves", "seventh son's" and "face fades" are uses of alliteration.
Irony
"I can't say her name, because it was/ dangerous in our house so close to the water" and "This is how I learned your language", in these lines of Yusef's poem "English", the use irony can be found. In the first example the poet ironically remarks about the social disparity between an african and an american.
Genre
Lyric
Setting
Yuesf Komunyakaa's poems are set in modern day world.
Tone
Ironic, satirical, critical.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The poet is the protagonist of his poems. Antagonist N/A
Major Conflict
In "English", "Facing It" and "Blues Chant", an african-american citizen's strong appeal for equality is voiced. The major conflict is existing inequality in society.
Climax
In "English", the girl whom the poet adores is shot dead by german soldiers.
Foreshadowing
In "Facing It" the poet foreshadows the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from the very beginning of the poem by using the words like "black granite", "stone" and "tears".
Understatement
In "Camouflaging the Chimera" Komunyakaa understates the approaching war throughout the poem. In "Facing It" seriousness of war is understated and it revolves around the memorial. It is done for the sake of emphasis.
Allusions
In "English" the poet uses the allusion of "Alice in Wonderland". In "Facing It" Yusef alludes to the vietnam war.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"The voice was almost America" (Metonymy)
"I'm flesh" (Synecdoche)
Personification
"my story is how deep the heart runs" (Blues Chant) here the heart is personified. "I turn this way_the stone lets me go" (Facing It) it is also a use of personification.
Hyperbole
"We can cut out Nemesis's tongue/ By omission or simple analysis" (Anger) and "I go down the 58,022 names" (Facing It) are uses of hyperbole.
Onomatopoeia
"I knocked on the wall, in a circle" (English) here the sound of knocking is emphasized. "The seven o'clock whistle", here the sound of the clock is hinted by the word whistle.
