juxtaposing the black boy & the bullet

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2014

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is usually used to create contrast, especially when two distinct images are juxtaposed in a hard way, meaning they are rhetorically slammed together on the page. Juxtaposition can create incredibly strong thematic points.

Perhaps the most famous example of juxtaposition in poetry is William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience (1789), but an easy visual to help demonstrate the powerful effect of juxtaposition is Time Transfixed (1938)—a surrealist painting by Rene Magritte. This painting juxtaposes a train coming out of a fireplace like a tunnel. Above the train is a clock, transfixed forever in the still painting. The image has many strange qualities and tends to elicit different reactions in all viewers, but one way of reading it is as a juxtaposition of the many items the locomotive brought to the world, including set times, wealth, culture, and travel. The train’s physical elements are also illustrated by the fireplace’s physical properties: The train’s smokestack is like the pipe in a chimney and the smoke of the train is like the fire in the chimney.

Juxtaposition allows artists to craft striking images and to connect things that might not otherwise connect. And when done in a hard way, like how Magritte and Smith did it, the juxtaposition becomes jarring and unsettling, leading to tension and unease in readers and viewers.

Formatting

Smith’s poem uses little punctuation, no capitalization, and pays little attention to traditional syntax or structure. Instead, the poem is written almost like a text message with a slash where a word should be and an ampersand where the word “and” should be. The poem almost looks like something a person might write in the notes section of their smartphone with auto-capitalization turned off.

Most of Smith’s poetry looks like this: There are two main reasons for it. The main reason is that it makes the verse feel looser and more natural. Smith's writing follows normal speech patterns, so the poem reads as if it were transcribed from a conversation. This makes it feel more modern and it especially connects with the slang style of most modern speech. Smith embraces slang and dialect. There is a long history of debate in African American writing about whether to embrace natural dialect or to embody a “traditional” voice and style. While some Black writers want to write in a formal style, others wish to promote aspects of speech some readers might not view as traditional or formal. Smith fully embraces natural speech and avoids looking or sounding like most writing that literary critics label as canonical.

The other reason for the laidback style is that Smith is an oral poet, so their poetry is written with performance in mind. Many spoken word and slam poets prefer this natural style because it more naturally comes out. If the written word feels like the spoken word, then speaking it will be easier than if it feels written.

Form and Meter

While the poem follows no rhyme scheme or set rhythm, it does have a cadence. The poem uses short clauses and lines, and it builds pace through its syllabic count and line length. The first few lines utilize three syllables at the beginning of the line in the first foot: “[O]ne is hard” (Line 1), “one is fast” (Line 2), and “one is loud” (Line 3). In Lines one and two, the first foot is followed by seven syllables that are mostly iambic.

Following these first two lines, the rhythm begins to slowly change. After Line three’s first three-syllable foot, Smith uses enjambment—the continuation of a line of poetry to the next without end stop punctuation—then punctuates the short stanza with a sing-song rhythm and a subtle rhyme between less/rest: “... note & endless rest” (Line 4).

The rest of the poem almost turns into a prose poem as the lines get longer, the enjambment becomes more extreme, and there is no attention to a formal metrical pattern. This poem derives its musical qualities from this progression into the longer line and breath unit, making it feel like it is rising in force as it progresses. But then, suddenly, the poem ends with the only period. This full end stop mimics what happens when a bullet hits its target. Everything stops, momentum is arrested, and things die.