Apollo

“Apollo” is written in the literary context and poetic tradition of poems told from a child’s perspective (often exploring an important memory from the poet’s past) to confront difficult topics, such as race and discrimination. While written in the present tense, “Apollo” is told through the lens of a child in another time (late-1960s America). By using a child’s voice and perspective, Alexander focuses the poem in a way that an adult perspective (or an adult speaker looking back on the past) would not be able to. The poem’s present tense gives the poem an immediacy—much like the immediacy of the poem’s start (stopping suddenly at a roadside shack to watch men walk on the moon). (Note: This was before recordings and the Internet, so the moonwalk had to be watched in real time.) Second, a child’s perspective offers stark realizations; these can be playful or deeply honest. For example, the speaker’s sudden understanding that the moon is “not green, not cheese” (Line 16) is both humorous and establishes the child’s young age. While the speaker’s final line (“stranger / even than we are,” Lines 28-29) is heartbreakingly honest and poignant.