I would like help to understand and find some poetic devices in this poem please. Some of the ones I have found are caesura and enjambment i believe. Enjambment seems to push her away from reality and caesura brings her back if I'm analyzing it right? Also does the full dash after dungarees suggest anything ?
The Changeling
As a young girl
vying for my father's attention,
I invented a game that made him look up
from his reading and shake his head
as if both baffled and amused.
In my brother's closet, I'd change
into his dungarees -- the rough material
molding me into boy shape; hide
my long hair under an army helmet
he'd been given by Father, and emerge
transformed into the legendary Ché
of grown-up talk.
Strutting around the room,
I'd tell of life in the mountains,
of carnage and rivers of blood,
and of manly feasts with rum and music
to celebrate victories para la libertad.
He would listen with a smile
to my tales of battles and brotherhood
until Mother called us to dinner.
She was not amused
by my transformations, sternly forbidding me
from sitting down with them as a man.
She'd order me back to the dark cubicle
that smelled of adventure, to shed
my costume, to braid my hair furiously
with blind hands, and to return invisible,
as myself,
to the real world of her kitchen.
It's also free verse poem, but I don't know why poet would choose this structure to make emotions run loosely?
1 answer
Read lots. I'm sorry I can't help you myself, but I've never studied this poet or his works before.