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said hello on the terrace. The colonel told it to shut up, and pushed. himself from the table. My friend said to me with his eyes: say. nothing. The colonel returned with a sack used to bring groceries. home. He spilled many human ears on the table. They were like.
- Summary
- Themes
- Structure and Form
- Detailed Analysis
- Literary Devices
- Similar Poetry
Throughout this poem, the speaker details meeting and dinner she had, along with a friend, at the house of “the colonel.” There, life seems to progress normally, as it would in any other home. The colonel’s wife is there, along with his son and daughter. Together, they eat an expensive meal. One that seems unlikely to be gracing any other household...
In ‘The Colonel’ the poet engages with themes of war and responsibility. Through the text, her speaker, which may or may not be the poet herself, depicts the home life of “the colonel.” This brutally violent man is responsible for much of the death and destruction that’s occurred within El Salvador during the Civil War. While the war is not discuss...
‘The Colonel’ by Carolyn Forché is a prose poem written in the form of a “block” or a large paragraph. The poem does not make use of a metrical pattern or a rhyme scheme. It focuses more on the narrative than on poetic devices, although some are present. The prose poem, block format, is very appropriate for the subject matter of ‘The Colonel.’ It a...
Lines 1-7
In the first lines of ‘The Colonel,’ The speaker begins by stating, very clearly, that any rumors the reader might’ve heard about the speaker’s meeting with the “colonel” are true. She was at his house, alongside his wife, daughter, and son. These first mundane features of his life contrast powerfully with what comes next. His children act just like children do, and there are pet dogs and daily papers around. There are light examples of alliteration in these lines with “papers,” “pet,” and “p...
Lines 8-18
In the lines which follow, the speaker describes how the windows are barred as if they’re those of a liquor store. It’s interesting that this is the first thing that comes into her mind, while most people might go first to prison or jail cell. But, this distinction does confirm that they are to keep people out rather than in. The dinner was filling and luxurious, exactly what one would assume someone of the colonel’s ranking would choose. It’s obvious from the poet’s focus on the food items t...
Lines 19-26
In the final lines of the poem, the speaker uses figurative language to compare the human ears to “dried peach halves.” This is a disturbing comparison, one that she’s very aware will likely surprise and bother the reader. In anger, over nothing and everything, the colonel shakes one of the ears in their faces and then drops it in a water glass. There, it “came alive.” This suggests that it reanimated somewhat with the reintroduction of liquid. Although there is a dialogue in the following li...
Despite the fact that ‘The Colonel’ is a prose poem, readers can find several interesting literary devices at work within the text. These include enjambment and her use of end-punctuation. These two features are quite prominent throughout the poem. Forché uses sentences that range in length and are often cut off before they reach their conclusion. ...
Readers who enjoyed ‘The Colonel’ should also consider reading some similar poems. For example, ‘Parsley’by Rita Dove, ‘Song-Books of the War’ by Siegfried Sassoon, and ‘War Photographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy. The latter depicts the poet’s opinions toward society and the agonies of war, in addition to the lack of interest of humankind toward it. In ‘...
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- October 9, 1995
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Sep 28, 2016 · At the height of the Vietnam War, a struggling prep school hopes to alter its misfortunes by hiring a charismatic Marine to unite its rebellious students in ...
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Carolyn Forché's "The Colonel" (1981) answers that question and critiques how those in power have often violated human rights while the rest of the world does nothing. Set in El Salvador in 1978, the speaker and her companion are taken aback when the Salvadoran colonel cuts their dinner party short. He swears, yells, and dumps a bag of severed ...
The Colonel. WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD is true. I was in his house. His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His daughter filed her nails, his son went out for the night. There were daily papers, pet dogs, a pistol on the cushion beside him. The moon swung bare on its black cord over the house. On the television was a cop show.
The Colonel Lyrics. What you have heard is true. I was in his house. His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His daughter filed her nails, his son went out for the night. There were daily ...
“The Colonel” is a single-stanza, free-verse prose poem, meaning that it does not follow a specific structure and eschews common poetic forms such as rhyme and meter. It opens with the phrase ...
