Gate A-4

Throughout the poem, the poet uses both alliteration and enjambment to create rhythm in the poem. “Gate A4” is a prose-poem that employs enjambment to bring poetic quality to a series of informal sentences. Because the clauses of the poem do not come to an end at a line break, but continue on to the next line, there is a clear movement between the ideas, images, and emotions of the poem.

Alliteration is a literary device that employs the use of repeated speech sounds to enhance the musical sound of the language in the poem. Note the repeated use of “w” sounds as well as enjambment in the lines below.

We called her son, I spoke with him in English. I told him I would

stay with his mother till we got on the plane and ride next to

her. (Lines 17-19)

Although the poem does not follow formal metrical pattern, it retains musicality through the use of alliteration. Successive sentences often begin with an “and’ or a “then,” creating a sense of rhythm in the poem. For instance, the use of alliteration is present in Stanza 5, where the