"Facing It"

by Yusef Komunyakaa

Guide to the HyperText version of the poem


 

Some questions about the links I made

 Form

Content 

  • During one point in the poem, the links lead you to other links in the poem—all in an endless circle. Why would I create this (frustrating) circle in this specific location in the poem?
  • How do the Vietnam Veterans Memorial links (both images and text) help navigate the poem as a whole?
  • Why is the link in line 1 significant? How could the page-link for "Facing History and Ourselves" echo as a reader navigates this poem?
  • How do the links in lines 2-6 combine to offer a coherent commentary on the poem's speaker (and perhaps on soldiers as a whole)?
  • How can the link to Andrew Johnson help navigate the poem? What can it offer? What should the reader do here?
  • What is particularly significant about the aircraft link toward the end of the poem?
  • How does the "Winter Soldier" link offer commentary on the racial politics of the poem?
  • Why would Vietnam Veterans Memorial statstics be linked to the phrase "I'm a window"?
  • What is the significance of the link in the final line of the poem?

Click here to go to the poem itself

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Last modified February 17, 2001