Week #8—Sign Inventory

They Hanged Him, I Said Dismissively

                                    by Dennis Brutus

They hanged him, I said dismissively

having no other way to say he died

or that he was a dear friend

or that work wove us most intimately

in common tasks, ambitions, desires.

Now he is dead: and I dare not think

of the anguish that drove him to where he was

or the pain at their hands he must have faced

or how much he was racked by my distress:

now, it is still easier to say, they hanged him,

dismissively.

Confessional style narrative using first and third person voice

One stanza

Slight slant rhyme in “died,” “desires,” “distress,” and “dismissively.”

Internal rhyme in “way to say”

Use of two colons.

“Dismissively” does triple duty, applying to mood of the speaker in the first and last line

as well as the attitude of the executors in the last.

Alliteration or assonance of “d” sound in every line but #4; also in “work wove”; also in “hanged” and “having”

First line reiterates title

Strong verbs in “wove,” “dare,” “drove,” “faced,” “racked,” and “hanged.”

Intimations of violent treatment toward his friend in same verbs, along with “pain” and “anguish”

Repetition of “say”

Sensational subject discussed in relational tone

Odd coincidence of author’s last name and brutal theme of poem