Both poets use a ringing sound, King in the “I love you too bird” and Smith in the telephone. Later King uses literal silence to emphasize the effect of the silence of which she speaks, “Who knew his last word would be ________/A summing up silence of violence interrupted.” Smith uses silence to her advantage as well, “wide questioning silence” in a literal line; but silence is also embedded into the piece because aside from the noise of the undertaker’s thoughts, the whole interaction is fairly quiet. King also uses a slash to bring multiple meanings to “My bleeding fresh/man of twenty one.” This can be read as “bleeding fresh”, an image of blood, “bleeding freshman”, an image of youth, and “My bleeding man”, claiming a relationship to the man who bled.
I would like to explain the main themes a little more: (sudden) death, street violence, and sacrificial love. Both poem talk about the shock of sudden death. Kings' poem includes the story of a specific incident of stabbing, and Smith's has many stories of shootings. All characters in the poems are victims of street violence. Sacrificial love is also present in both poems . Kings' poems shows how the man sacrificed his own life to defend a mother and daughter. Smith's poem shows how the mothers of the shooting victims and the family were willing to sacrifice in order to provide a proper burial for their family member.
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