I need help ASAP finding literary devices in this poem!

published December 9, 2016 - updated December 9, 2016
QuestionsCategory: QuestionsI need help ASAP finding literary devices in this poem!
AvatarAnonymous asked 6 years ago

Tell me
Where is it written
In this oral tradition
What what I create
Is subject to such dictations
Lorded over by some sort
Of ethno-eccentrics
That says because you are brown
You must paint nothing but eagles
And sing nothing but powwow
And write nothing but how good
It is to be Native
And how badly we were treated
By the government and churches
And how tasty bannock is

Which isn’t even Native
And even why I have to proclaim
My genetic life story

Why does this scene
Want my treaty card to precede me?
Why am I evil
If I say I don’t want to?

Why can’t I be me
Who just happens to be Cree?
Why can’t my style stand apart
From all this souvenir-stand art?
I do not hate what I am
I just don’t live by sweetgrass plans
I am not brown and acting black

I don’t watch Tribal Trails or scream at you
To give our land back

I am what I am
First and above all
In this life of mine
Being brown is an afterthought

NicholasKlacsanzky Staff replied 6 years ago

You must paint nothing but eagles
And sing nothing but powwow

– Instance of alliteration, with “paint” and “powwow”

Lorded over by some sort
Of ethno-eccentrics

– Instance of enjambment

Why can’t my style stand apart
From all this souvenir-stand art?

– Instance of enjambment

I don’t watch Tribal Trails or scream at you
To give our land back

– Instance of enjambment

Tribal Trails

– Alliteration

Why can’t my style stand apart

– Alliteration

Other than that, I don’t see metaphors or similes.

1 Answers
NicholasNicholas Staff answered 6 years ago

You must paint nothing but eagles
And sing nothing but powwow

– Instance of alliteration, with “paint” and “powwow”

Lorded over by some sort
Of ethno-eccentrics

– Instance of enjambment

Why can’t my style stand apart
From all this souvenir-stand art?

– Instance of enjambment

I don’t watch Tribal Trails or scream at you
To give our land back

– Instance of enjambment

Tribal Trails

– Alliteration

Why can’t my style stand apart

– Alliteration

Other than that, I don’t see metaphors or similes.

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