Facing It By Yusef Komunyakaa Analysis

The poem “Facing It,” by Yusef Komunyakaa is a heart wrenching story of a man who was in the Vietnam War. He is recounting the lost and maimed of the war. The author himself served in the Vietnam War. This poem has many accurate depictions of the struggles felt by the veterans coming home from this highly controversial war. The personification seen in the story catches the attention of the reader in a way that almost makes the reader feel as though they themselves are in D.C. staring into the wall. First, this poem truly reflects the hardships the soldiers returning home had to face. In the poem the first lines state that the veteran sees himself in the wall. He feels he is within the wall himself because the war mentally killed him. He feels he should have his name on the wall because that’s where he feels he belongs. He has a longing inside to see his long lost friends. He states “I am stone. I am flesh [,]” this is the author describing the way he feels dead, yet he manages to live on. The reference to his reflection being, as a bird of prey watching his every

He feels very alone, but then comes to terms with the fact that there are others fighting the same war at home as well. The standing reminder of a monument is of a great deal of importance. Not only does it show that these men are not forgotten to the pages of time, but it stresses the importance of the cost of war. The author was trying to show that war wares a heavy burden long after the last shots are fired. The author, Yusef Komunyakaa, set out with intent of painting a picture of what the men coming home from this war were encountering; as well as how it was affecting them physically and psychologically. Through his use of personification and metaphors it can really seem as though we too are there staring into that wall of so much misery and