...“Facing It”: A Poetry Analysis The Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C. is a unique setting for Yusef Komunyakaa's poem "Facing It". Not only does the wall display the names of the American military troops who died in the war, the wall is made of polished stone so those who look at it can see their own faces reflecting off the names of the dead. By facing "it", the Memorial, the speaker also finds himself in the face of other "its", including his past as a veteran and his mixed feelings about the present. In Komunyakaa’s poem, “Facing It”, he uses imagery and metaphor to shed light on the psychological impact of war and loss. At the start of the poem, “Facing It”, Yusef Komunyakaa uses imagery to indicate his race in the first lines. He writes “My black face fades, / hiding inside the black granite" (lines 1-2). The word ‘black’ has been repeated twice in these lines, once to explain his skin color and the other in relation to the color of the war memorial. By Komunyakaa doing this he not only has made it known that he is an African American, but he also creates a connection between himself and the color of the memorial wall. He becomes one with the wall as he goes on to explain that his face “fades” and “hides inside” the granite. The outline of his face that allows him to be noticeable from the memorial vanishes, and he and the memorial have become one item. This coming together is not only on a general level, as his face goes "inside" the granite, but he is...
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