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Apollo
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Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“Apollo” is written in seven stanzas, each four lines long, with a final concluding line set off in its own stanza alone. The lines are short and deeply enjambed. Enjambment, talked about in detail below, is when a line spills over into the next line with no end punctuation. Alexander uses short, clipped lines, sometimes only three syllables long, to achieve a somewhat staccato or abrupt tone. By writing in brief, short lines, Alexander stacks small details one after the other, revealing them quickly to the reader. This is evident in the first stanza where each line contains a new piece of scenic information, establishing the place of the poem: “We pull off / to a road shack / in Massachusetts” (Lines 1-3). First, the speaker and family “pull off” (Line 1), then Alexander tells you where (“a road shack” [Line 2]), and then she specifies the state. Each line varies from three to five syllables long, and each line gives a clear, essential detail.
The poem is written in free verse. No set meter or rhyme scheme is apparent. However, as mentioned above, Alexander does favor lines of short syllables. At a few pivotal moments in the poem, Alexander uses rhyme to make a line or concept stand out. For example, in Lines 20-21, the word “shack” (Line 20) rhymes with “black” (Line 21). This rhyme is pivotal because it is the first moment in the poem that the speaker brings race to the forefront. Up until this point, there is no mention of the color of the speaker or their family’s skin. By using rhyme, Alexander places emphasis on this word (“black,” Line 21), calling the reader’s attention to a larger subject matter at hand. Alexander emphasizes this point further by concluding the poem with a single, dangling line unattached to a four-line stanza (“even than we are” [Line 29]). Again, by offsetting this line, Alexander draws attention to the race of the speaker (and family), making this poem much more than simply about watching the first lunar landing and space walk.
Enjambment
While “Apollo” does not have a set rhyme scheme or rhythm, Alexander’s use of enjambment gives the poem its own rhythmical movement. An enjambed line is a line that “steps over” from one line to the next. What this means is that the line ends part way through the sentence or clause. What this looks like in practice is apparent in Lines 20-21, when Alexander breaks the sentence on the word “don’t” (Line 20): “the road shack people don’t / notice we are a black / family” (Lines 20-22). Alexander does this again at the end of Line 21 by breaking the line on “black” (Line 21), splitting up the phrase “black / family” (Lines 21-22). These examples of enjambment create a suspension in the poem. Given the subject matter of “Apollo”—that of watching men walk on the moon in space, and that of a family “not from there” (Line 22) moored at a roadside shack in a place with which they’re not familiar—establishing a feeling of suspension through enjambment makes contextual sense. The form mirrors the context, the narrative, and the feelings of the speaker and their family.
Enjambment also builds the narrative drama in a poem. By breaking sentences or clauses in the middle, the reader is carried over quickly to the next line to find out what will happen next in the narrative. An example of this is between Lines 4-5, when the speaker states that they stopped “to watch men walk / on the moon” (Lines 4-5). Stopping at a roadside shack to watch men walk wouldn’t be very interesting. However, by enjambing the line, Alexander pulls the reader forward into the next line to find out what type of men these were, where they were walking, and more. What the reader discovers (at the start of the next line) is that these men are walking on the moon. Prior to 1969, this had never been done before, so it was startling, exciting, and possibly a little unsettling. Alexander’s use of enjambment in “Apollo” functions like a formal metrical device. It creates narrative drama, it moves the reader forward in the poem (much like rhythm or rhyme might), and it creates a feeling of suspension, which mirrors the moonwalk and the speaker’s personal feelings.
Repetition
Much like enjambment, repetition also drives the narrative forward in “Apollo.” Repetition as a literary device is the act or an instance of repeating or being repeated. Alexander composes the first half of “Apollo” with instances of repetition. She does this through the actions of the family and through repeated phrases (“We pull off” [Line 1]; “We did / the same thing” [Lines 5-6]; “we watch the same men” [Line 9]). In all of these examples, a repeated mirroring occurs, either in the poem’s syntax (its grammatical structure) or in the context of the family’s actions.
The repeated syntax or phrasing used in the first half of “Apollo” is an example of repetition and even appears like anaphora (which is a repeated word or phrase at the start of a sentence or clause). Syntax is the structural arrangement of words. Therefore, when Alexander uses the repeated structure of a pronoun followed by a verb, it becomes a pattern. Examples appear in Line 1, Line 5, and part way through the sentence in Line 9. What this repetition achieves is a pattern of events. Up until this point, the family is acting as a unit (a “we”).
Sometimes the most useful thing about repetition is noticing when the poet breaks the pattern. This happens in Line 11, when the speaker suddenly uses the first person and states, “I want / a Coke and a hamburger” (Lines 11-12). This break in the repetition (of the “we” + verb phrase) shifts the poem into the first person, where it remains for two stanzas (stanzas 4-5).
A second form of repetition in the poem is contextual or narrative repetition. The family watches the men walk on the moon and the speaker (and their family) mirrors this action, stating, “We did / the same thing” (Lines 5-6). The repetition returns in Line 9 when the speaker says, “we watch the same men” (Line 9). Repeating “same thing” (Line 6) and “same men” (Line 9) creates a repetitional pattern. Through this contextual repetition, Alexander compares the men on the moon to the family—a comparison that will return in the final stanza of the poem with a new, greater meaning.
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By Elizabeth Alexander
