Point of View

The poem is written from a close first-person point of view. There is no other perspective available in the poem — the speaker is the only character in the poem, and he seems to be quite alone in the universe that he is constructed. He never addresses any other character, or even the reader. Instead, the poem seems to be composed largely from the speaker to himself, an exploration of his own internal life. For a poem with such a personal and individual focus, first person is a critically important poetic choice. It helps develop the sense that the poem is confessional and personal, that the reader is hearing the personal self-discovery of a real person.

The first-person may also be working in a slightly different way than it typically does in poetry: as autobiographical. Normally, it is important to distinguish between the speaker and the...