Morning Song

“Morning Song” is a free-verse poem, displaying no consistent rhyme scheme or meter. The discernible feature of this poem is its use of couplets—two-lined stanzas—which suggests an “us” vs. “them” situation. The only exception is the final line, which stands alone for emphasis. The lines often feature enjambment, or the continuation of a thought from line to line and even from stanza to stanza, as in the following: “She sees you at 2 a.m. adjusting your / impenetrable vest” (Lines 18-19).

Italics are another featured device in this poem. These lines read as inner dialogue with Nye using first-person pronouns, as if she is embodying the voice of Ayyad: “They pretended not to see us” (Line 31).

In stanza eight, Nye uses a metaphor to suggest Ayyad’s prowess: “If you stomp her garden / each leaf expands its view” (Lines 15-16). In this section of the poem, Nye speaks of how larger than life the tiny journalist is despite her small size and young age. The comparison of Ayyad’s world to a garden implies the blooming and blossoming of which she is capable as she grows and learns more about the world around her.