Kim Addonizio's Sign Your Name

The poem “Sign Your Name” by Kim Addonizio is about how society attempts to take away a person's individualism. Addonizio uses poetic structure, diction, and figurative language, in “Sign Your Name” to illustrate how society can throw an individual's identity away and if you get the opportunity to sign your name, write your life story.
The poetic structure used in the poem “Sign Your Name” by Kim Addonizio consists of seven couplets. The first example of poetic structure in the poem is “and farewell: you’re stacked or stashed/ or set aflame, turning on the spit,” (lines 9-10). Addonizio’s use of a line break after the word The second example of poetic structure in the poem is “If you’re here you’re already nearly gone” (line 12-13). Commentary

The first example of diction in the poem is “on a scrap of paper,/ crumple or tear it up and throw it away:” (lines 1-2). From the title the reader automatically can infer that the writer wants them to write their name on a scrap of paper, ball it up and trash it. The second example of diction in the poem is “that's how the world works, friend” (line 3). Addonizio is stating that the world will be quick to throw away your name. The third and final example of diction in the poem is ”Write/ if you can. If you can, give us a song” (lines 13-14). If an individual has an opportunity to tell their story they should take it.
The figurative language in the poem “Sign Your Name” by Kim Addonizio allows the reader The first example of figurative language in the poem is “..., maybe your hand/ is scrabbling in a few dirty grains” (lines 5-6). Addonizio uses figurative language in this line of the poem to The second example of figurative language in the poem is “of rice, or you're licking a tin plate/ or just your fly-crawled lips…” (lines 7-8). Commentary The third and final example of figurative language in the poem is “the axis, the long pole that runs/ through everyone…” (lines 11-12).