Comments on First Person Persona Poem

 Point of View is the perspective from which the poem is told; this helps the audience to understand who the characters are speaking in the poem. The poet does this by staging varies types of voices or personae to narrate the poem to the audience, and is forever mindful not to present situations whereby the audience is turned off because voices are too boring, preachy or reveal overwhelming traits of narcissism. What must be borne in mind is that the poet is not only the writer but is the voice, who speaks to the audience in three different ways with the help of these pronouns; “I, me, my, we, us, our, you, your, she, he, it, her, him, they, them”. These are some of the tools poets use when shifting character roles in poems, as shown in Flowchart below.


Flowchart  

When a poem contains the pronoun “I” the poet has created what is known as a First Person Persona poem as is shown in the sample poem below.


Birthday Wishes from the Cloud

(First Person Persona Poem)

This day is special for Bobby Stallone

A guy, who lives in the northern time zone;

I better call him now on telephone;

Sing him a song with melodious tone

From my country home, outside Montreal

And wait eagerly for the first snow fall;

To give him gifts I purchased in the mall,

To match his tattoos, wrinkles, warts and all;

Yet brushing off hardships I have carried;

And my commitments to kids so candid;

And yet, heaps of sugar-ants dominate

The icing, which keeps dripping off the plate;

Happy birthday to you my handsome mate;

From the cloud, I wish for you all things great.


Notice that in “Birthday Wishes from the Cloud” the poet is speaking directly to the audience, the poet here is the protagonist and writes from what is known or seen. First Person Persona gives immediacy and intimacy; sympathy is more intense. This First Person Persona poem offers a deeper connection between the poet and the audience. This connection allows the audience to travel directly inside the poet’s thoughts. First Person narrative is referred to by such terms as First Person Persona, First Person Limited, First Person Point of View.