Facing it by yusef komunyakaa. "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa 2022-10-22

Facing it by yusef komunyakaa Rating: 7,7/10 238 reviews

"Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa is a powerful and emotional poem that reflects on the experience of visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The speaker of the poem is a veteran who has returned to the memorial, which is a wall with the names of all the soldiers who lost their lives in the Vietnam War. As the speaker stands in front of the wall, he is overwhelmed with memories and emotions.

One of the most striking aspects of "Facing It" is the way in which Komunyakaa uses imagery to convey the speaker's emotions. The speaker describes the wall as a "black mirror," which suggests that it reflects back the pain and suffering of the war. The wall is also described as a "gash," which suggests that it is a wound that has been inflicted upon the nation.

Another powerful aspect of the poem is the way in which it captures the speaker's sense of guilt and responsibility for the lives lost in the war. The speaker writes, "I go down the 58,022 names / Half-expecting to find / My own in letters like smoke." This line suggests that the speaker feels as though he is somehow responsible for the deaths of these soldiers, and that he is searching for his own name on the wall as a way of accepting his own guilt and responsibility.

Throughout the poem, the speaker struggles with the weight of these emotions and memories. He writes, "I touch the name / Andrew Johnson. / I see the booby trap's white flash." This line shows the speaker reliving the moment of Andrew Johnson's death, and the way in which the memory is still fresh and raw.

In the end, the speaker finds some measure of peace and acceptance by facing the wall and the memories it holds. He writes, "I go down / The names / Touch them: / Silky smooth names / That hooks left raw / Or the weathering that / The stone itself seems to wear." The act of touching the names on the wall seems to bring some measure of closure and healing for the speaker.

Overall, "Facing It" is a poignant and powerful reflection on the experience of war and loss. Through vivid imagery and raw emotion, Komunyakaa captures the complex and difficult process of coming to terms with the past.

"Facing It"by Yusef Komunyakaa

facing it by yusef komunyakaa

The personification seen in the story catches the attention of the reader in a way that almost makes the reader feel as though they themselves are in D. The white man is like him, they are both images floating in the black granite. He is both emotional and callous at the same time. Metaphorically the speaker may be hoping that this takes away some of the names with her as she walks away in the hopes that maybe the people who died during the war can come back one day. There are three images from the poem that I think are important and admire.

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Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa

facing it by yusef komunyakaa

He then begins to remember the events of the war he was in. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery. In Vietnam the intense physical strains of the jungle and the feeling. But when I read over the poem I had to say that the figurative meaning of that line was that when he was looking into the memorial with his missing arm, he has also felt like he was missing something more than that when he was looking at the names in the memorial. One never comes to fully understand what his role was, but he came close to death at one point or another. They soon had found themselves in the midst of an intense war with nothing but uncertainty and fear.


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Facing It Study Guide

facing it by yusef komunyakaa

The deeper meaning behind this image would be because he would of expected to die if these men who did the same work as him but he didn't so his name isn't up there but being that it was a real bad war he would of expected it to be which is a fear that he was facing. It is important to understand that while this poem might be being told from a contained first person If one did not have the corresponding background information, it would be impossible to know where the speaker is or what he is looking at. The impact to citizens and soldiers during times of war is significant and widespread. The writer also brings up feelings of regret and guilt for not being the one who stepped on the booby trap. But still stuck in his mind all of the memories that occurred. War Changing People In Soldier's Home By Ernest Hemingway 641 Words 3 Pages Do you ever wonder the way you would react after returning home from the war? Literately this is referring to the grey colour that the name is chiselled in the granite. Literately it might be a mother who is giving comfort to her son who had a father or grandfather at war.

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30 POETS, 30 DAYS

facing it by yusef komunyakaa

The author is saying that a white vet came up to look at the memorial. Throughout this poem, there are 3 images that I felt had a stronger literal and figurative meaning behind this poem. All of these images that I pointed out show me the theme through their metaphorical meanings. The theme of this poem is that in order to move on in life we must accept that people will pass on earlier and unexpectedly. This use of imagery by the author helps the reader to understand the conflict that is occurring inside the man.

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"Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa

facing it by yusef komunyakaa

The names of the dead seem to have inscribed themselves on the blouse of a woman, as though she were herself a tombstone. Perhaps he feels like he did die there, and now seeing the full outcome of the war, that he never really left. This allusion to someone the speaker knew further drives home the point the toll the that war takes. . That is as far as the metaphorical sense of the quote because the literally meaning is self-evident. As for the metaphorical meaning, the author goes to the memorial again to find peace in the light for all those deaths.

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Yusef Komunyakaa: “Facing It” by Robin Ekiss

facing it by yusef komunyakaa

He tried to look away, but he said that there was something about the reflected image that haunted him. This is mentioned within the first two lines. When he turns one way he sees the wall ending, he looks the other way he sees it rising again. He can see himself back in the war with all the other dead veterans. The speaker is within his own world, narrating his own experience. This soldier is having flash backs from the war because he was a veteran himself.

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Facing It Poem Summary and Analysis

facing it by yusef komunyakaa

He's facing depression and the only way to feel remorse is to breath in all the pain and let it go. This is the reason why he finally acknowledged the need to face the past. The soldier keeps a conversationalist tone and uses rhetorical strategies such as imagery and rhetorical questions to show how miserable he is living. On the first line of the poem, the literal meaning is that he is looking at the Vietnam Memorial, but his skin blends in to the reflection that comes off of the memorial. You can infer here that not only does this imply about his position to the wall, but also the role memories of the Vietnam War have in his life. In addition Scott effectively presents his critisism on the way people perceive war when he uses two contrasting stanzas. This poem was very well written, and I respect all that was said in the context of the poem.

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💣 Facing it by yusef komunyakaa analysis. Facing It “Facing It” Summary and Analysis. 2022

facing it by yusef komunyakaa

The most important image of this section is that of his own reflection staring back at him. Lines 10-16 Although he might move to the side, there is no escaping where he is. In this poem, an understanding is gained of the unrelenting grief and emotional toll that resulted from this overwhelming experience through the presentation of the emotions evoked from the man by the memorial, his feelings and experiences during the war, and also the apparent connection between him and another survivor. He was made aware of the difference between war and peace. The poem starts off as; my black face fades, hiding inside the black granite.

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