“The moon rose over the bay. I had a lot of feelings.” - A poem by Donika Kelly With a purpose and message being the goal for their work, poets are often found using many specific qualities in their writing. By making use of these devices the poem is a piece of composition that connects with its writer. Strategies like the ones used in this poem have been utilized since the beginning of writing. This specific piece of Donika Kelly’s work, “The moon rose over the bay. I had a lot of feelings.”, utilizes rhetorical devices such as metaphors, repetition, and simile to develop the story of her struggles through life while connecting them to others. Born in 1983, in Los Angeles, California, Donika Kelly was the first child of her parents. She lived in LA until she was thirteen years of age when she then moved to Arkansas. Here she attended high school along with her general four years of college education at the University of Arkansas. For her, it was then off to Texas. She studies for three years at the University of Texas at Austin where she received her Masters of Fine Arts (MFA). The last chapter of her studies was conducted in …show more content…
I had a lot of feelings.”, various rhetorical devices are used which assist Kelly with expressing the many underlying meanings and interpretations of her personal story. These techniques are apparent immediately as you start to read the title. The denotation translates to the moon literally rising over the bay, and Donika literally having an abundance of feelings. The connotation is referring to the darkness of life causing her to become overwhelmed with emotion. In the title only the first word in each sentence is capitalized to follow correct grammar of a normal sentence, but also to connect it to the depressed mood of the poem. Personification, repetition, and imagery are focused on along with devices like similes and metaphors to express her thoughts during the course of the rest of the