The Wooden Overcoat
Persona
The persona in the poem is a person who seems to explain the difference between detail and image. The persona gives various examples of words that they thought they are details until the terms are used in an extraordinary form that the persona understands they are images. For example, “where a coffin is just another coffin until someone at the funeral calls it a wooden overcoat.”
Simile
The poem compares various phrases using “like” and “as.” For example “the coffin was so beautiful it was like the chandelier lighting the room where treaties are signed” the poet compares the beauty of a coffin with that of a chandelier to help the reader create an image as they read the poem for a better understanding. “… and a detail is as luminous as an image “. The simile uses the common to illustrate the uncommon for the reader to have an easy time relating to the poem.
Form
The poem is made up of seven stanzas. Each stanza has four lines. The lines are constructed in an enjambed style. Each line runs over to the next line. It is only the first and the last line of stanza one and the final stanza that starts with a capital letter. All other verses begin with running over line.