Yusef Komunyakaa

Words: 214
Pages: 1
Open Document
Grief, war, survival—the list goes on and on. These topics and emotions, as well as hate, anger, lust, fear, and hurt, are some the most petulant topics in literature. In his poem, “Facing It,” Yusef Komunyakaa tells his story and experience with these emotions. The poem begins with the author reminiscing and experiencing nostalgia as he is at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial “again.” He then goes on express that he is having bad memories of past experiences. Next, skimming through the list of names at the memorial reminds him of a person who lost their life. At the end, he unfortunately experiences a daydream or vision that puts him in a bind. Komunyakaa wastes no time in loading his poem with themes. He touches on grief, war, survival, memory,
Show More

Related Documents: Yusef Komunyakaa

Yusef Komunyakaa Analysis

In the poem Night Muse & Mortar Round the author, Yusef Komunyakaa describes the woman as only coming around when the war is happening. I believe that this means that while this soldier is at war, he is looking back on a significant woman of his past in order to keep the light of hope. It is very common that soldiers hold onto a memoir or constantly think of a woman with the desire of coming home to them again one day. Sadly, even though in the back of their minds home will never be the same. When…

Words 161 - Pages 1

Yusef Komunyakaa Analysis

Yusef Komunyakaa gives impressive and detailed view on every poem of the Vietnam War’s events as he experienced in his US Army service. Two of the poems that show the vivid experience of the war are “Losses” and “Facing It.” Both these poems help the reader understand and visualize of what the war had caused. It also shows how haunted he is by the Vietnam experience, however he is not brutalized or desensitized. In the first poem “Losses” he seems to be lost. The poem starts with “After Nam he…

Words 473 - Pages 2

Yusef Komunyakaa Essay

known as Yusef Komunyakaa was born on April 29, 1941, he grew up in Bogalusa, Louisiana. He served in the U.S Army during the Vietnam War as a specialist for the military paper. During this time frame there were quite a few things going on inside and outside the United States. Komunyakaa grew up during the Civil Rights Era and for an African American like Komunyakaa, you can imagine the hardships and trials he had to go through. After his relies from the Army in December of 1966, Komunyakaa went on…

Words 585 - Pages 3

Essay The Old Lie

0514 1 0514 Professor Fields English 102 October 8, 2014 The Old Lie Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” and Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Facing It” are both poems that bring to light the more negative features of war. Though “Dulce et Decorum Est” immerses the reader into the midst of war and “Facing It” is set instead next to a war memorial, both poems seem to convey impressions that oppose the traditional outlook that war is glorious and heroic, and each speaker feels the critical aspects of battle…

Words 1019 - Pages 5

compacing Facing it and Dulce et Decorum Essay

“Facing it” by Yusef Komunyakaa and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, are two powerful poems with the graphical life like images on the reality of war. It is apparent that the authors was a soldier who experienced some of the most gruesome images of World War I. In “Ducle et Decorum Est” Owen tells us about a personal experience in which he survived a chemical warfare attack. Although he survives, some of his fellow troops do not. As in “Facing It” Komunyakaa is also a soldier who has survived…

Words 1458 - Pages 6

In Yusef Komunyakaa's Dui Boi, Dust Of Life

mother, and their families. Abandoned because of the shame his parents have brought upon by committing the taboo of the war, procreating. The lose of a family and the lose of becoming a man. Komunyakaa says, “Let me see if they castrated you,” further taking away this child's manhood,dignity, and pride. Through Yusef Komunyakaa’s poems, “Dui Boi, Dust of Life” and “Facing it” The struggle of remembering is painful and easy to want to push back, but the loved ones of the past are in jeopardy of being…

Words 700 - Pages 3

Family and Love Letters Essay

specific sport. From not actually playing that sport I missed it. From that day to today I have played sports, but because I was not forced and stressed into doing so. In both poems “The Centaur” by Mary Swenson and “My Father’s Love Letters” by Yusef Komunyakaa the parents are threatening towards their children. Because they choose not to let there children do what they want, their childhood memories towards their parents will be negative. When you have a bad role model during your childhood it could…

Words 775 - Pages 4

African American and Black Arts Movement Essay

Dedra Jones Portfolio Assignment Era’s 1-4 12/7/12 Era #5 Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, 1940-1960 “Realism” is defined as the “faithful reproduction” of reality while naturalism refers to the “franker, harsher treatment of that reality”. Modernism signifies “a break with purely representational aesthetics, with the familiar functions of language and conventions of form”. Before this time period, mainly during the 1930s, many black writers focused on the rural South still imprisoned…

Words 813 - Pages 4