This one I have explicated differently than the previous posts. There are no numbers because the devices seemed to interconnect in my mind.
First, the title is a clear summary of Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem. The ex-soldier finds himself staring his past in the face. He sees the gruesome deaths of his compatriots in the many names scribed on the monument and suffers from the guilt of returning home physically unscathed to his life in America. He must cope with the horrid memories of distraught men and explosive confusion that radiate from within the black wall. It is another life which seeps into his current one and taints it with pain and heartache.
In the first line, the narrator describes his reflection, his “black face”(1), disappearing and “hiding inside the black granite”(2) of the Vietnam Memorial. His personified face shrinks back, shameful of its ability to exist among the many names listed. Further, the narrator says, “I’m stone. I’m flesh.” He sees himself as a separate, living being, compared to the people honored on the wall, who lost their lives in the war. However, the oxymoron presents another self-perception the narrator has. He also views his reflection as a part of the memorial, one of the soldiers who all fought together “hand in hand” for one cause. It may be he feels as though his rightful place is on the wall itself, in the form of a name, etched amongst thousands.
“My clouded reflection eyes me like a bird of prey…”(6-7) The narrator gives his reflection a unique personality. It looks straight into his eyes, taunting him, attacking his heart and emotions and plastering them on the wall for him to see. To add to the captivation of the dark wall, the man brings the stone to life, giving it a power similar to hypnosis. When the narrator looks on the wall, it captures his focus, drawing him in and transporting him to the battle ground, the fear, the death, the sadness. When he turns away he is alone, by himself again, on a path in Washington DC. When controlled by the wall, he feels trapped in his guilt and the shame of being alive.
The simile “letters like smoke”(16) attributes to the contrast between reality and memory within the poem. The names appear clearly on a stone wall, never to be erased or removed. However, they are words written in the smoke of the past, the thick haze of the war, foggy and confusing. At the turn of the poem, where he begins to describe the specific events certain names rekindle in his mind, the narrator established another setting. He is not only in his real world, standing and looking at the Vietnam Memorial, but also in the detail of his memories. Seeing the names in front of him catalyzes spastic images of the disastrous battles. Fragmented pictures come into focus, such as a trap, a plane, and finally a lost soldier.
The soldier’s eyes meet the narrator’s, and suddenly the ex-soldier becomes a window, invisible, a portal to the past which lies within the granite. He sees his friend trying to escape, but his limb remains in the memory, lost forever, the cause of his death. Suddenly extracted from his fantasy, the narrator believes he witnesses a woman struggling to wipe names away from the wall. In his desperation he thinks she may be bringing his friends back from the dead. But alas, he is once again in reality, and the soldiers cannot be resurrected. He faced his grief by approaching the wall and opening up to the monstrous whirlpool of the war. The end of the poem has a subtle change in tone. In the last line his voice tames, calming down as he realizes he once again is on the pathway, safe in America.
What Lies Within the Text 