Electricity Comes to Cocoa Bottom

ocoa Electricity comes to Cocoa Bottom – Essay There are several literary techniques that are used in this poem such as “lamps…Oil” this is very ironic because they have brought old technology to come and see the new technology being unveiled. Also the fact that they are “waiting for sunset” is ironic because they are replacing natural light with artificial light.

Near the beginning there is a Simile used “Cable was drawn like a pencil line across the sun” This uses one of the main themes of the poem – technology verses nature, it seems that the “Cable” is taking over from the sun and is sapping some of its power also a “pencil line” is not as colourful as the sun with the many different shades this implies that the world is going grey and will have less life in it after the technology has “taken over”.

There is also personification and anticipation used in “A breeze coming home from the sea held its Breath”; this shows that even nature is aware of how special this event is. Also the “Bamboo lining the dirt road stopped swaying” even though this is logical being that the wind has stopped it also heightens the sense of anticipation of the grand event. Sibilance is used in “as soft as chiffon curtains: Closing. Closing. This uses the repeated “s” sound to give a gentle ending to the verse and the full stop in between the “Closing” suggests an amount of time has passed. Irony is used again in “Is there one among us to record this moment? But there was none” this is ironic because the poem is in fact a written record of the moment. The poem is a narrative and you get this feeling of a story all the way through, It has three stanza two long ones and a shorter one the first one is 17 lines and they get smaller to 15 lines then only 6. – couldn’t find much about the form and structure.