And so I fell in love with a color—in this case, the color blue—as if falling under a spell, a spell I fought to stay under and get out from under, in turns.
-- The Speaker (chapter 2)

Importance: In this quotation near the opening of the book, the speaker lays out the metaphorical premise of her poem and also addresses one of its major themes: indecision and cyclical thinking. The literal color blue—plus everything it symbolizes, from depression to love to meaning to hope—and the speaker’s conflicted love for it will structure everything that follows, and here the speaker prepares the reader for that premise.

Does the world look bluer from blue eyes? Probably not, but I choose to think so (self-aggrandizement).
-- The Speaker (chapter 35)

Importance: This passage is a good example of the speaker’s frequent interrogative style and her use of parenthetical comments to enter into dialogue with herself. The formal term...