Explication of Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa
Poetry work often provides avenues where authors express their thoughts, concerns and emotional feeling on matters of social issues. Yusef Komunyakaa used this approach by composing Facing It in reaction to the memorial of the Vietnam war ( Komunyakaa). Yusef uses the poem to demonstrate his thoughts and feelings about a memorial. From the poem, we also get to learn how he was personally attached to the memorial. The title Facing It says it all ! it shows that the poet was ready to confront his deep feelings about the war. Basically, the poem is about Komunyakaa’s encounters while serving as a columnist in the Vietnam war. A close analysis shows that the author uses certain literal styles to deliver his message to the audience. This essay aims at giving a full review of the poem, including the literal styles used and themes in the poem.
The poem revolves around the speaker’s anxiety. A Vietnam war veteran who is paying a visit to Wall Memorial in the New York capital. The black wall of the memorial invokes a Plethora of war-torn images from the traumatic and horrifying past. Facing It explores what these effects have on a young black American soldier, who is trying to fit in. Most of Komunyakaa’s poetry work covers mainly war-related subjects, racism, and jazz. He often explores harsh reality and personal history.
Facing It does not take an objective view on the war in Vietnam but instead focuses on a short episode in the life of a former military man who was once fully immersed harshest environment (Salas, 32-53). The poem sheds some light on the mental and emotional turmoil that these individuals’ memories are buried for whatever reasons. In this case, it is both an endeavour at purgation and conscious confrontation, at clearing away old dirty truths, guising the dreadful traumatic encounters of the past.
The poem can be categorized as a free verse poem. It has a total of 31 lines. It does not have a regular rhyme scheme and is made up of a single stanza. The poem is written on 1st person approach, which tells the reader that this one person is guising whatever it is that follows. A persona is also a black person. Looking critically at the first two lines, one can see or imagine an image of a black individual. The black person’s reflection is slowly waning into black granite. The readers can also conclude that the individual could be whispering to himself as he gazes at the black stone. The rock, in this case, is the granite. The author uses granite stone for a specific reason. We know that this stone is one of the sturdy and long-lasting stones. But even with the word hiding in the second line, suggest reticence and hesitancy or afraid to be seen. Maybe the individual doesn’t want to see himself.
In the second line, “face fades,” it is alliteration. Also, hiding inside is assonance. So, there is a sound texture. The person is deepened in the third and fourth lines. These individuals encourage himself that he will stay strong; he would not shed a tear cry. This shows that the black person is a bit emotional. From this line, we get to learn that the person has two sides, the soft and the tough one. He is split physically. One hand is as gritty as granite stone and the other weak as flesh. His reflection in the stone represents his thoughts. The person is here because he wants to look at himself and reflect on his past.
From line six, the poem gains momentum in its style of conflict and contrast. The choice of words uses to illustrate that this is a vulnerable individual. The author uses words such as face/tears, flesh/eyes. There is also a mixture of reactions with the use of words such as granite and stone. The individual is tough and at the same time, insensitive. Line seven and eight even not fluctuated; introduce the same situation and movement as the persona uses the light to try and figure out what is happening to him.
From the poem, the individual seems to have been imprisoned by the stone. As soon as he gets away, the stone traps him again. Perhaps this can be his past that haunts him. He can let go of past memories no matter how much he tries( Komunyakaa. The setting is in Washington, D.C, the source of extreme authority where the decisions that directly affect the lives of the citizens are made. We can tell that the decision to send soldiers to Vietnam was not made far away from the memorial.
In line thirteen, the individual clears the scene out. He is a war veteran soldier, a black who came to view the war memorial in order to gain more understanding. He also tries hard to allow his past overwhelm him. We can tell that the granite represents the war; the reflection forms the granite stone is his past life, what he’s been through.
There are very many names on the stone of those who died at war. The person seems to have gone through a lot in this war. The United States has sacrificed a lot of people in the name of winning the war. Speaking figuratively, the individual thinks his name is there on the stone, but he can’t be there because he is alive.
In the poem Facing It, survival and lose is the central theme that the author tries to address. The individual is reminiscing about the deaths of the fallen soldiers throughout the poem. As much as he tries to stay strong, the speaker Stoll gets emotional while looking at the names on the stone. The memorial wall presents him with his involvement in the war and making him conjure up his harsh reality. The flapping bird, however, distracts his imagination, and he comes back to reality, but still, his mind is stuck in the past.
Work Cited
Salas, Angela M. “Race, Human Empathy, and Negative Capability: The Poetry of Yusef Komunyakaa.” College Literature, (2003): 32-53.
Komunyakaa, Yusef. Facing it. Streetfare Journal, 1996.
Marvin, Thomas F. “Komunyakaa’s Facing It.” The Explicator61.4 (2003): 242-245.