October Mourning The Mourning Poem Poetic Devices

Martin Luther King Jr. once said “Justice denied anywhere diminished justice everywhere”. This idea of social injustice is represented in October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard. This poem includes a powerful message on human rights violation, specifically LGBT rights considering that Matthew Shepard was killed because of the fact that he was homophobic. October Mourning: The Fence by Leslea Newman explores a theme about being considerate about the vulnerability of the meek and is supported by different literary devices, such as symbolism and similes. Poets use many different types of poetic and literary devices to support the theme and create the main message that they wish to circulate in between their readers. One of the literary devices used by Newman to relay the message of how vulnerability of the submissive creates insecurities in The Fence was symbolism. In line 18 and 21, when it says “the truck was the last thing he saw” it could be seen to represent the hope that is leaving Matthew in that moment. Matthew was probably hoping that someone in the
Newman decided to include the line “he was heavy as a broken heart” to show that Matthew was hurt by his attackers to the point that he could not hold up his body weight. The simile was used to indicate that Matthew was beaten to the point that it emotionally hurt him. Matthew was convinced at a bar by a group of boys that they were being friendly which then caused him to follow them out and make him be defenseless against the actions of his later attackers. Matthew being “heavy as a broken heart” implies that he was broken mentally, physically, and emotionally. Altogether, the simile used by Newman suggests that Matthew became vulnerable and defenseless against the encounter with his attackers because his aggressors believed that he was a lesser human for being