18 pages • 36 minutes read
Rage HezekiahOn Anger
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter: Enjambment in Free Verse
“On Anger” is a free verse poem: It does not employ a regular rhyme scheme. The line lengths are somewhat similar; the poet uses, but does not consistently adhere to, 10-syllable lines. Lines that are around the 10-syllable mark tend to take up about half a standard-sized book page, balancing a somewhat consistent amount of white space on the right-hand side of the page. Hezekiah’s lines leave only a slightly ragged right-hand edge, and the phrase “I burn” sticks out further than all the other lines. This emphasizes the content of the phrase more than other end words of lines, and visually places “burn[ing]” out in the fragile whiteness of the page.
The enjambment—breaking of sentences across more than one line—of Hezekiah’s poem needs visual tracking to reveal multiplicities of meanings. Reading, and especially rereading, allows the reader to see how two sentence fragments on the same line can form a new sentence, or new sentences.
For instance, the words of Line 15 can be read as: without it, wherever you go. The pronoun “it” refers to anger throughout the poem, and this new sentence opens up a nuance where the therapist suggests the speaker remain without anger “wherever” she goes. This sentence being created by another’s words and the speaker’s internal monologue shows a blending of influences that are “without” and “within.” Also, this is the second appearance of “without” in the poem; at the end of Line 7, “without” also speaks to the dichotomy of internal (“inside” begins the line) and external. New internal and external spaces are visually created on the page using enjambment to join form with content.
Furthermore, the visual tool of line breaks is different from oral traditions of Black poetry. While some modern Black poets, like June Jordan, use elements of storytelling and toasts in spoken word poetry, Hezekiah’s enjambment locates “On Anger” as visual art (as well as work that is meant to be recited aloud). The predominantly white page-poet tradition has seen more Black women (and those with diverse racial backgrounds) published and lauded recently, but still needs to be more diverse. Bringing Black perspectives on anger that are rooted in a history of oral texts, like public speeches on Black Power, to the silently read (and reread) page is yet another way to approach the external/internal dichotomy of this poem.
Narrative Voice: Dialogue
One way Hezekiah does draw upon Black poetic traditions is with the use of dialogue. The first-person speaker of her poem has unitalicized thoughts and spoken language. The therapist’s direct quotes are italicized, marking off the conversational nature of the poem: It is a back-and-forth between two women. Historically, African folktales include an exchange of jokes or riddles. Humorous one-upmanship can be traced through the tradition of African American toasts (see Bruce Jackson’s compilation of toasts titled Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me: African American Narrative Poetry from Oral Tradition) and rap music.
However, Hezekiah’s dialogue takes a more serious tone than the oral roots of poetic Black dialogue. The device of reinterpretation, or redefining, a concept—in this case anger—hails to one way wordplay occurs in Black folktales. Redefining anger is linked to changing Hezekiah’s identity—for her, giving up anger is giving up what inspires Black humor in other texts.
Figurative Language: Metaphor
Hezekiah’s poem ends on a metaphoric fish. Here, the use of metaphor is an attempt to convey an emotion: the feeling of loss of anger. Structurally, the poem moves from dialogue and definitions to the physical action of ritual, and then to the realm of the “imagin[ary].” The penultimate and final lines bring together the internal/external tensions previously raised and present them as a visceral image: a “gutted fish.” This sharp contrast between the familiar fireplace and clear recounting of a therapy session and an abstraction leaves the reader with ideas presented in different registers, the abstract perhaps being the most intimate.
