19 pages • 38 minutes read
Martín EspadaOf the Threads that Connect the Stars
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“Of the Threads that Connect the Stars” is a narrative poem. It tells the story of three generations of Espada men. They are the main characters, and their relationships to the stars and all they represent fuel the plot. The poem follows a linear path forward, but it skips time to condense the full arc into the relatively short poem.
The poem is written in unrhymed free verse organized into three stanzas of four lines each and a final fourth stanza of two lines. The lines are relatively uniform in length, and sound like natural, musical speech. Despite its lack of rhyme and formal meter, its structure evokes the English sonnet. Three quatrains span three generations, each searching for stars. A concluding couplet offers an amplification and another layer of meaning: “My father saw stars. My son sees stars. The earth rolls beneath / our feet. We lurch ahead, and one day we have walked this far” (Lines 13-14). The play between traditional, personal, and unconventional strengthens the connection to the Whitmanesque while remaining firmly in Espada’s individual style.
The aural effects of repeated words, “stars” (Lines 1, 5, 9, 13), “father” (Lines 1, 8, 13), and “son” (Lines 9, 13) join with repeated consonants to create a musical quality to the speech. Enjambed lines are balanced with end-stopped lines to reinforce the sense that the audience is being told a story. Thoughts run over lines, are carried over, and eventually reach a conclusion.
The form allows for linguistic play and layers of meaning. The first sentence of the second stanza, “I never saw stars” (Line 5), is an echo and a contrast to the stars referenced in the opening stanza. The speaker is saying he hasn’t experienced “the white flash in his head” (Line 2) at the same time he’s moving to a discussion of the night sky of his childhood: “I never saw stars. The sky in Brooklyn was a tide of smoke rolling over us / from the factory across the avenue” (Lines 5-6). A similar effect is achieved at the beginning of the third stanza. “My son can see the stars through the tall barrel of a telescope” (Line 9) is a concrete description of the instrument that also carries an association with gun barrels thanks to the echoes of violence hinted at in the first two stanzas. The audience pieces together the threads to experience a greater connection to the story, characters, and poem.
Voice
The voice in the poem is conversational and uses natural speech rhythms without losing the musicality of poetry. The speaker is a storyteller offering character moments like the opening line delivered with the “cackle” (Line 1) in his father’s voice. The tone balances between the humorous, “I cannot see what he sees in the telescope, no matter how many eyes I shut” (Line 11), and the serious: riots, fires, and violence.
The audience is guided through the speaker’s personal experience and is given enough detail to spark imagination. The voice paints pictures through clear imagery. For example, “The sky in Brooklyn was a tide of smoke rolling over us” (Line 5) and “My son can see the stars through the tall barrel of a telescope” (Line 9) anchor the story with specific detail and evoke mood at the same time.
The word choice is clear and ensures the audience doesn’t lose the narrative thread even when it shifts time forward by decades. It is accessible and believable.
Setting
The people—Espada, his family, and community—are the heart of the poem, but the speaker makes sure the audience never loses sight of the connection to the setting. Brooklyn, in essence, becomes another character.
“In Brooklyn, this would cause men and boys to slap / the table with glee” (Line 3-4) we’re told. Espada’s father knows his audience and speaks their language. They share experience and an important facet of identity. They are part of the New York City borough.
The second section offers a description and grounds the action in a place and time. Brooklyn is described: Its sky is covered with smoke “from the factory across the avenue” (Line 6), there’s a “junkyard” (Line 6) and “ruins where squatters would sleep” (Line 7), and in 1966 there were riots (Line 7).
The specificity of the first part of the poem allows the ending to spread out into something more universal: the stars and the earth. The personal story told by the speaker becomes more inclusive. “We” (Line 14) is the family, Brooklyn, and everyone who connects. “We lurch ahead, and one day we have walked this far” (Line 14). Celebration of what has been accomplished and the understanding there’s work still to be done co-exist.
