The United States Welcomes You

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“The United States Welcomes You” is a pseudo-sonnet, or false sonnet. This means it only follows some of the rules of the sonnet form. While Smith uses some internal rhyming (rhymes within lines), like “afraid” and “invade” in Line 10, she does not follow the strict end rhyme schemes that famous sonneteers like Petrarch and Shakespeare used. Like both Italian and English sonnets, Smith’s poem has 14 lines. Her use of the last two lines resembles the Shakespearean sonnet structure where the final couplet (a two-lined stanza) is a commentary on what occurred in the rest of the poem.

Smith’s lines follow what is called a loose pentameter. This is around ten syllables per line, with some lines following an unstressed-stressed pattern (iambic meter) in the syllables. For example, Line 3 follows strict iambic pentameter: “Why this | dancing? | Why do | your dark | bodies.” However, other lines deviate from this formal constraint of the English sonnet. Some examples include Line 1 containing only nine syllables, and Line 4 containing 11 syllables. These deviate from the 10 syllables needed for strict iambic pentameter.

Furthermore, Smith separates her poem from traditionally structured sonnets by adding spaces between lines. This emphasizes her pronounced use of enjambment.

Enjambment

The majority of the lines in “The United States Welcomes You” use enjambment. Enjambment is when a line of poetry continues on the following line without the use of end stop punctuation, which adds sub-questions. The full questions are marked off with end punctuation (question marks), but sub-questions are found in additional questions created by line breaks: “Have you anything to do / With others brought to us by harm?” (Lines 8-9) The grammatical question—the full interrogative sentence—is about the suspect being associated with a group of people (“others”).

If read to the line break, a sub-question is: Have you anything to do? This can refer to activities in addition to associations. “Anything to do” could refer to a job, schooling, or being a parent. To connect the sub-question to the title of the poem, people entering the United States are asked why they are crossing the border—for business or pleasure. Smith’s prevalent use of enjambment illustrates many hidden meanings in the questions law enforcement agents ask. She is seeking the underlying truths of the questions--not simply the questions that allow agents to know what box to check for business or pleasure.

Persona

Smith adopts a persona in “The United States Welcomes You.” In an interview with The Auburn Avenue, Smith said the following:

The first few drafts of that poem were written from the perspective of the “suspect” in the poem—the person being interrogated, who stands “arms raised, eyes wide.” But it was difficult for me to be critical of that person, who in many ways is the victim of others’ mistrust and fear. It was only after I switched perspectives, and wrote the poem as though I myself were interrogating the poem’s subject, that I seemed to get somewhere that felt revelatory (Wright. Eleanor. “An Interview with Tracy K. Smith.” 2018. Washington Square Review).

She adopts the persona of a law enforcement agent, or an interrogator. This persona speaks with the authority of a corrupt system behind them. When the speaker uses the first-person plural, the other people included in the “we” are racists who hold power, and the systems perpetuating racism. The literary device of the persona allows the poet to examine a different voice than their own and present a perspective they do not necessarily hold, understand, nor with which they agree.