Point of View

This poem is told from the first-person point of view, which traditionally uses the pronoun “I”. Unusually, however, this pronoun never appears in the poem; the only cue to the first-person narration is the single use of the word “me”: “slowness enters me like something familiar” (Line 3). The rest of the poem takes place within the speaker’s memories. In this way the speaker acts as an omniscient third-person narrator for this inner world. Throughout the speaker describes a number of peripheral characters that occupy this retrospective space; yet rather than having motives and conflicts of their own, these people become part of the speaker’s own inner perspective. In this way the speaker’s first-person voice acts as a lens through which the reader can experience this world.

Language and Meaning

“Going Home: New Orleans” uses primarily colloquial language, but often strung together in...