The Universe: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2011

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Alliteration

Much of the musicality in this poem comes from Smith’s use of alliteration—the repetition of nearby sounds. The first stanza contains the most extreme alliteration as Smith repeats “s” sounds in the following words: first, still, almost, snare, bars, sax, stratosphere, singe, soon. She continues the “s” sound throughout the poem, including the following: synthesized strings, something, cellophane, snagged, shoe, noise, voices, shavings, molasses, static, silence, disappears, and somewhere.

The “s” sounds give the poem a slick feeling. “S” is a soft, smooth sound. It flows easily. Because of those qualities, it nicely lends itself to music.

Smith also alliterates other sounds. Near the middle of the poem when she introduces humans, she repeats “f” and “t” sounds: for, flags, filled, fire, and tin, tried, and tame. These sounds don’t have the same slickness as the “s” sounds. They’re a bit thicker and more concrete. Such sounds better match the human song that does not flow in the same smooth manner as the universe’s song.

The end of the poem introduces “d” sounds: dark, imagined, audible, marbled, static (pronounced stad-ick), dare, and disappears (twice). The “d” sound is another rough sound subtly suggestive of the word death. Considering the poem concludes with the end of the music, the suggestion of death makes sense.

Figurative Language

The use of so many metaphors and similes gives the poem a surrealistic quality. Smith is tackling vague, difficult concepts and images, and she’s trying to imagine things that humans don’t really have the capability to understand. Additionally, the premise of her poem is metaphorical, as the poem views the universe as a soundtrack. Since the entire poem is an extended metaphor, she uses a number of individual metaphors throughout the poem to help paint the bigger picture.

The metaphors also help her establish tone. This poem is mysterious and a bit intangible—just like most humans’ understanding of the universe. While the imagery makes sense and readers can individually picture each image, the metaphors and similes describe items that are truly impossible to understand. In order for readers to have any chance to connect with the poem’s content, Smith must use figurative language. If she tried to write the poem with more literal imagery and sensory details, the poem might become incomprehensible.

Internal Rhyme

As a free verse poem, Smith has more freedom to play with rhythm and rhyme than she would have if she were writing in form. One effective technique free verse poets often employ is internal rhyme. Internal rhyme allows poets to hide their rhymes so the sounds don’t dominate the poem the way end rhymes do. Smith uses internal rhyme to pronounced effect; this helps give the poem a sense of flow without bogging it down in structure.

In the first stanza, she uses assonance—the repetition of nearby vowel sounds—with the rhyme swings/even. She continues the rhyme in Line 3 with strings and then slant rhymes—a close but not exact rhyme—cellophane with the three words.

In line four, she uses the perfect rhyme of snagged/drag. The perfect rhyming of the “ag” sound nicely goes with the image of cellophane breaking and snagging. And similar to the previous rhyme, she carries this one over to line six with assonance and slant rhyme in the word molasses, then another perfect rhyme with flag.

In the last two stanzas, she slant rhymes we’ve/meat, then perfect rhymes dare/somewhere to end the poem.

The rhyming in this poem is a mix between assonance, slant, and perfect rhymes; all of the rhymes are spread out and often stretch to multiple stanzas, creating a feeling of repetition and expansion—mirroring the contraction and expansion of the universe. The effect of all this is a poem that flows but without the flow overtaking the imagery.