The poem Identity by Julio Noboa Polanco is a free verse poem that is made up of 5 stanzas. The theme of the poem is identity and the poet compares a flower to a weed saying that sometimes it’s better to take a risk in life and be different to everyone else rather than being rooted to the ground and stuck in the same place. The poem has a strong and defiant tone, as seen in ‘Let them be flowers,” and “I’d rather” and the poet appears to be very confident with his decision.It is written in a positive tone as the poet is celebrating his individuality and happy about his choice. The poem mainly consists of metaphors, as the poet is referring to himself as a weed as seen in most of the poem: “I'd rather be a tall, ugly weed, clinging on cliffs, like an eagle wind-wavering above high, jagged rocks.
” He has also amended to using the form of an actual weed and flower. An example is “Let them be as flowers, always watered, fed, guarded, admired, but harnessed to a pot of dirt.The flower is representing everyone else, admired, popular and pretty but trapped while the weed as shown in “I'd rather be unseen, and if then shunned by everyone, than to be a pleasant-smelling flower,” is representing the poet who would rather follow his own path than be like everyone else. There is also a very clever use of personification by the poet as he gives the weed and flowers human like qualities as seen in “If I could stand alone, strong and free, I'd rather be a tall, ugly weed” The poet also uses contrasting very well by comparing the weed to the flower throughout the whole poem.This is shown by him using “Let them”, I’d rather and “than”.
The poet also uses sound devices such as alliteration and repetition. Alliteration gives the effect of making the line more memorable and helps to covey imagery. For example: “Clinging on cliffs”, “Wind Wavering” and “Surface of Stone”. Repetition is used effectively throughout the whole poem, “I’d rather” is repeated 4 times to emphasis on the confidence of the poet’s choice and the importance of individuality and independence.
