Point of View

The poem is told from the first-person perspective of the speaker. While it is generally a fallacy to equate the poem's speaker with its author, "Spirit" is just one poem within a larger, semi-autobiographical collection. The collection tells the story of the tragic murder of Maggie Nelson's aunt, as well as the aftermath of the event and how it has affected Nelson's family. As such, "Spirit" can be said to be, at the very least, semi-autobiographical, reflecting elements of Nelson's own experience as Jane's niece. This perspective is indeed a unique one, as the speaker finds herself surrounded by people who consistently point out similarities between her and her deceased relative. Nelson, however, never met her aunt (Jane died four years before Nelson was born), and it would appear that the speaker of poem finds herself in similar circumstances. This point of view – sharing a...