Gate A-4

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2008

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Alliteration and Enjambment

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 repetition of the word “then” creates flow in the poem as the emphasis on “th” sounds create tonal unity.

Then we called her other sons just

for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while

in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends.

Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her? This all took up two hours. (Lines 19-23).

Diction

The straightforward diction of the poem recalls the poetry and cadence of spoken language. Nye, who is a keen observer of every-day life and interactions, often mines the hidden poetic vein in conversational language to enhance the accessibility of her poems. The speaker positions questions next to statements in the poem, just as individuals who are engaged in verbal conversation often flow from one thought to the next.

Consider the flow of words in Lines 15-16: “I said, "No, we're fine, you'll get there, just later, who is/ picking you up? Let's call him." Spoken aloud, these lines have the cadence of poetry though they are conversational. In Lines 21-23, the poet’s tone is again chatty and idiomatic, filled with more conversational phrases: “Then I/ thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know/ and let them chat with her? This all took up two hours.”

The straightforward, plainspoken language cuts through empty formality, lending the lines velocity. The directness of language creates an impression of the poet as an individual who does not have much use for literary niceties; her plainspoken speech itself is the metaphor and symbol for her message.

Imagery and Symbolism

The poem juxtaposes understated, everyday visual imagery, such as a busy airport terminal, with richly symbolic details, like the Palestinian woman’s dress, in order to highlight the dramatic events of the poem. Because the details are sparse and strategic, they function as metaphors in the poem. The Palestinian woman’s dress symbolizes both her rich cultural heritage and her isolation in a foreign country, while the plant she carries is a symbol of rootedness that the speaker recognizes. The mamool cookies represent human kindness, while the little girls symbolize innocence and hope for a future generation.

Against the spare and familiar background of Gate A4, these objects and people take on a spiritual importance that has the potential to bring strangers together. The poet does not describe the terminal itself, relying on readers’ shared memory of their own visits to airports for visual cues. However, the symbols themselves are described in rich detail, underlining their value. The description of the mamool cookies contain sensory detail, inviting the reader to taste the sweetness of the ingredients, while the incongruity of the unexpected plant in the woman’s bag is memorable for its unexpectedness. Together, the striking visual images of the Palestinian woman’s person and belongings combine to leave the reader with a distinct sense of her humanity.

Form and Meter

“Gate A4” is a prose poem. The oxymoron of the term “prose poem” holds up to scrutiny; prose poems are indeed prose, but they can bear many of the qualities that typify poetry—whether meter, repetition, or, in the case of “Gate A4,” alliteration and enjambment. Nye’s poem also has discernable stanzas, but because of their length and superficial formlessness, they give the initial visual impression of paragraphs.

Though the prose form may intuitively seem less poetic, it can offer a rhetorical impact not otherwise possible. For example, the lines’ prosaic semblance and sprawling quality resonate with one of the poem’s central motifs: spoken language. The poem’s unadorned diction and unstudied cadence reinforce this effect.

The first notable appearance of prose poetry was in 19th-century German and French literature; in 1869, French writer Charles Baudelaire gave the form its name with the book Petits poèmes en prose (“Little Poems in Prose”). The form’s advent arose in the context of Modernism, a literary movement characterized by a break from traditional form.

Related Titles

By Naomi Shihab Nye