Literary Devices

• Two devices from : "This is the Dark Time, My love"

  Oxymoron- "It is the festival of guns, the carnival of misery."

  (Whilst the people of the land are in fear, the colonizers are jovial of their terror and misery.)

  
  

  Personification / Pathetic Fallacy- "Red flowers bend their heads in awful sorrow."
• Two devices from: "Ol' Higue"

  Alliteration - "Singing the Sweet Song of life."

  Rhetorical Question - "And for what? A few drops of baby blood?"
• Two devices from: "Dulce Et Decorum Est"

  Euphemism - "Many had lost their boots."

  Simile - "His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin."
• Two devices from: "Birdshooting Season"

  Alliteration/Metaphor - "Men Make Marriages with their guns."

  NOTE: Repetition of "M" depicts a Macho, manly seasons, where men take care of their guns as they should their partners.
• Two devices from: "My Parents"

  Simile - "Who threw words like stones."

  Metaphor - "I feared the salt coarse pointing of those boys."
• Two devices from: "Little Boy Crying"

  Metaphor - "The ogre towers above you" , "that grim giant" , "a colossal cruel".

  Allusion - "Giant."

  Alliteration - "Grim Giant", "Colossal Cruel".

  NOTE: Allusion to Jack and the Bean Stalk
• Two devices from: "A Stone's Throw"

  Irony - One would think that men with ‘virtuous’ hands would have only pure thoughts, but these men intend to stone the woman , who seems utterly defenseless. 

  
  

  Personification - "Kisses of stone."

  NOTE: Allusion to the story of Mary Magdalene in the Bible.
• Two devices from: "It is the Constant Image of Your Face"

  Oxymoron - "Heart's Treachery."

  Personification - The love interest's eyes constantly accuses the persona.
• Two devices from: "Dreaming Black Boy"

  Repetition - "Wish"

  (Emphasizes the desperation of the persona.)

  
  

  Personification - "I wish life wouldn't spend me out opposing."

  (Constant fight against discrimination and assault.)
• Two devices from: "The Woman Speaks to the Man Who Has Employed Her Son"

  Simile - "She carried him like the poor carry hope."

  (She may see him as a way out of poverty.)

  
  

  Allusion - "Absalom"

  
  

  NOTE: Absalom; Son of David; plotted to kill his father, a betrayal. However, he got killed before he could do so, nevertheless, David still felt grief, sorrow and pity for his son.
• Two devices from: "Test Match Sabina Park"

  Sarcasm/Allusion - "England boycotting excitement bravely."

  (Boycott : To abstain from | Cricketer Geoff Boycott.)

  This tells the boredom of the spectators as its a slow game.

  
  

  Metaphor - "Vociferous Partisans"

  (The West Indians are compared to partisans as they are vehemently, and boisterously supportive of their team as are partisans.)
• Two devices from: "South"

  Metaphor - "Life heaved and breathed in me."

  (The sea is compared to God, emphasizing the effect and importance to the persona.)

  
  

  Alliteration - "Sojourned in the Stoniest Cities."

  (Represents the unwelcoming feel that the persona has from the cold people of the north.)

  
  

  NOTE: Sojourned: To stay as a guest; temporarily.
• Two devices from: "Sonnet Composed Upon West Minister Bridge"

  Hyperbole - "Earth has not anything to show more fair."

  (This emphasizes the utter amusement the persona feels towards this sight.)

  
  

  Simile - "This City now doth, like a garment, wear the beauty of the morning."

  (The city is said to wear nature's beauty as man do clothes. This symbolizes the beauty when man and nature are in harmony.)
• Two devices from: "West Indies, U.S.A."

  Sarcasm/Metonym - "Subtle Uncle Sam."

  (Shows the blatant discrimination towards blacks and the pilot says to remain on board.)

  
  

  Contrast - "Galvanized shanties overseen by condominiums."

  (Shows that San Juan is not what one envisions, it is just as unjust, as the rich have power over the poor, neglectful of them.)
• Two devices from: "Once Upon A Time"

  Metaphor - "For then I find doors shut on me."

  (People always turn their back on the persona.)

  
  

  Metaphor - "While their left hands search my empty pockets."

  (People intent to use the persona, for which he is a constant victim, his pockets are empty.)
• Two devices from: "An African Thunderstorm"

  Simile - "Like sinister dark wings."

  (This compares the clouds to evil, an angel of death. This emphasizes the fear of the people.)

  
  

  Contrast/Dramatic Irony - "Screams of delighted children."

  (Whilst the adults and babies are in panic, the children find excitement from the storm.)
• Two devices from: "Mirror"

  Imagery - "Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness."

  (This shows the consistency of her obsession for looking at herself, critiquing.)

  
  

  Personification - "She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands."

  (This projects the woman's dissatisfaction with herself.)
• Two devices from: "A Lesson For This Sunday"

  Metaphor/Irony - "She herself is a thing of summery light."

  (Didn't she torture a poor butterfly, but after all, she's just a kid? // This shows the self-absorbed nature of man.)

  
  

  Personification / Metaphor - "Summer grass sways to the scythe's design."

  (Depicts how man uses nature innately, to his own convenience.)
• Two devices from: "Death, Be Not Proud."

  Personification - "Death, be not proud."

  (By personifying death, the speaker begins to belittle death just from the title.)

  
  

  Metaphor - "From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be."

  (This compares death to other forms of rest, degrading its significance and fear towards it.)
• Two devices from: "Landscape Painter, Jamaica."

  Metaphor - "A tireless humming bird, his brush..."

  (The painter's tools are compared to that of living creatures. This establishes a relationship between art, and nature, and how art paints itself.)

  
  

  Personification - "Impatiently waiting...to confine them."

  (Depicts the difficulty the painter experiences trying to capture the beauty of the landscape on his canvas.)