Slam, Dunk, & Hook

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1991

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Slam, Dunk, & Hook” takes the form of a long, single stanza, giving it a relentless narrative quality without regular pauses both aurally and visually engendered by the gaps between stanzas. This is typical of the modernist tradition, in contrast to the preference for regular stanza structures preferred by 19th century poets. It can be likened to the playing of a jazz band improvising single songs into 20- or 30-minute versions with repeating hooks and solos from different instruments. Another jazz poetry feature is the variation in line length, between nine to just four syllables in length. As the first and last words in lines tend to receive more emphasis, this has the effect of increasing the number of emphatic words, giving the poem an unrelenting intensity.

The poem’s use of free verse—no fixed meter or rhyme scheme—adds to its unpredictability. Stress patterns are varied and rarely follow the typical unstressed followed by stressed pattern of English poetry. The tone for this is set in the opening line: “Fast breaks. Lay ups” (Line 1), in which every syllable is stressed, creating a heightened tension from the start. Komunyakaa frequently uses assonance (repeating vowel sounds) to generate internal rhythms; for example in Lines 3-4, “We outmaneuvered the footwork / Of bad angels” with the dragged out long “oo” sounds followed by the shorter vowel of “bad” gives the impression of a rapid burst of pace to evade opposing players. Similarly “slapping a blackjack” (Line 30) with its short “a” sounds suggests the repeated slaps. Enjambement is used throughout the poem, with some lines running over into the next and others broken in the middles by full stops. Again, these techniques are deliberately used to mirror moments in the game—notably the shot that misses and its aftermath: “A high note hung there / A long second. Off / The rim. We’d corkscrew / Up…” (Lines 11-14). The broken nature of these lines perfectly captures the anticlimax of a near miss, followed a split second later by the race to dunk the rebound.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole refers to the use of deliberate and excessive exaggeration, often through word choice, simile, or metaphor. Komunyakaa employs hyperbolic imagery for deliberate effect on several occasions through the poem, notably in the first 10 lines when the speaker compares the players to gods (“Mercury’s / Insignia,” (Line 1-2) and “storybook sea monsters” (Line 10)). This is at once a playful nod to the tendency of teenagers to exaggerate their sporting feats, and at the same time a deliberate strategy to emphasize the poem’s serious intentions. It also has the effect of building up the players in the mind of the reader, sharpening the impact of their vulnerability which later emerges.

Personification/Objectification

Personification involves an object taking on human characteristics, while objectification is its inverse: when the human is portrayed like an object. In a poem all about the dynamic tensions at the heart of being alive, personification and objectification play important roles. Objects are full of danger: balls become bombs capable of exploding “the skullcap of hope & good / Intention” (Lines 14-15). The skullcap itself seems to be as much a state of mental balance as a physical object—a personification of the idea of goodness which the speaker does not seem to believe is possible. Objectification comes when the players become a “[l]abyrinth” (Line 7) and “corkscrew” (Line 13). In the excess of physical action, these boys seem to lose their humanity, only later to regain it after the shock of death and realization of the threats they face.