Knock Knock

“Knock Knock” is written in free verse, with no regular meter or rhyme pattern. The poem employs simple diction (word choices) throughout, but its language gradually changes from that of a small boy, who observes vivid details but lacks a clear understanding of their meaning, to that of an adult man, whose speech includes abstractions and subtext. For example, the boy notices “corn fields” (Line 12), a “highway” (Line 13), “Rusty gates” (Line 14), and “a room of windows and brown faces” (Line 18), but “incarceration” or “racial inequity” are not in his vocabulary. In contrast, the adult speaker puts abstract nouns—such as “racism and poverty” (Line 53) or “opportunity” (Line 54)—to powerful use and subtly implies certain points instead of stating them directly, such as the importance of writing (Line 49) and the need to avoid his father’s errors (Line 60). Simple diction and formal looseness are typical for a slam poem like this one, but Beaty uses other devices to give the speaker’s statements poetic shape and tone. The poem’s 69 lines are divided into stanzas, irregular in length, which signal shifts in action and