Preface To A Twenty Volume Suicide Note Poem Analysis

Many poets have the ability to captivate audiences by combining personal experiences with general empathy. The poems these poets create invoke subjective feelings within those who experience them, causing the interpreted meaning of the poems to be largely subjective. An individual’s opinion on a work of literature can only be justified through the means of a critical analysis. The meaning in Amiri Baraka’s poem, “ Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note,” is established through the use of symbolism, personification, and juxtaposition.

“Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note” is developed upon three major symbols; the the ground and wind,the stars, and the clasped hands of the speaker’s daughter. The ground and wind represent evils, tribulations, and the stress that accumulates in common life. The speaker says, “the ground opens up and envelopes me...the broad edged silly music the wind makes …show more content…
Baraka uses the first two stanzas to establish the idea of omniscient powers, and the last stanza to establish reality. Ironically, the real aspects of the world are given hyperbolized characteristics, while the supposed being is showered in reality. The speaker only sees his daughter “peeking into her own clasped hands;” many people would perceive this act as praying. Baraka purposefully includes nuances of his own beliefs in his writing, in order to enlighten his audience, or perhaps present a new way of thinking. He uses juxtaposition in a manner that makes the reader think critically about their own preconceived notions. Juxtaposition is the one of the most powerful elements in the poem because it provides the proper amount of balance between the symbolism and personification. The idea of an omniscient entity could never be possible without reality. The juxtaposition of the the first two stanzas to the las subtly displays this