The Palm Tree King

When I read the Palm Tree King I had completely forgot about diction and thought to myself, this seems like someone text messaged or IMed it. The language in it is so unique and once I realized that it was a direct reflection of an accent it became so much more. It adds a certain feel to the work, like the speaker is actually there and you find yourself talking through the poem in a stereotypical Jamaican accent. Using dis’ and an overstated accent on the a of man. Also the plot of the poem is quite compelling and starts all because of a stereotype that a man from the West Indies would automatically know about palm trees. Whereas one might become insulted because of such a statement, the author runs with it and turns it into a joke on the lost and ill-witted tourists who buy into it. Creating humor from something that in general isn’t funny makes the poem special, also how the author comes up with all these different questions for the speaker to pretend like he has the answers to. It creates this relentless feeling, much like a street merchant who is trying to oversell something and that is exactly the feeling I get from the poem. That the speaker is trying to boast confidence and acting like he knows it all before the would be suckers have a chance to question his knowledge on the subject. Also the last stanza is unique, it kind of hints that the speaker is bullshitting because he discusses how the answers he gives rhyme to seem more exotic, it made me wonder why the speaker would do that. Maybe he wants someone to call him out on what he claims to know or maybe it is a sense of being cocky and thinking that these people are not going to figure him out no matter what he says. The diction and the overall story of the poem are both humorous and unique because of how the speaker presents himself and how the tale unfolds with ridiculous questions that the speaker asks and even how he seems to cocky and relentless. It is truly one of my new favorites because of the diction in it.