Analyzing Sharks' Teeth

Sharks' Teeth
by Kay Ryan

Everything contains some
silence. Noise gets
its zest from the
small shark's-tooth-
shaped fragments
of rest angled
in it. An hour
of city holds maybe
a minute of these
remnants of a time
when silence reigned,
compact and dangerous
as a shark. Sometimes
a bit of a tail
or fin can still
be sensed in parks.

The poem “Sharks’ Teeth” by Kay Ryan is a very deep, complex, and interesting poem. In my opinion, the speaker of this poem is the author. The author is stating her views on silence and opinion. The author speaks fondly of silence in the beginning of the poem. Then, as the poem progresses, there is more noise added to the original silence. Then, she mentions shark teeth.
She relates a shark’s tooth to noise which makes that a metaphor. I like the imagery of “shark’s-tooth-shaped fragments. The author says that the silence is “compact and dangerous as a shark”. This is a simile because the two are being compared using the word “as”. The author doesn’t really use that much, descriptive figurative language. The best word she used, in my opinion, was fragments.
I did not notice any patterns other than the pattern that there was silence in the beginning, and as the story progressed, there was slowly more noise as each line progressed.
From my point of view, all of the various components of the poem combine to create one large greater meaning of the poem. I think that the meaning of the poem is that there is a greater meaning to silence and we have to use our minds to take advantage of and cherish everything in life, even though it might not be exciting.

Anthropomorphism - Noise gets its zest from the small shark's-tooth-shaped fragments

Irony - silence reigned, compact and dangerous as a shark

Personification - Everything contains silence

Synecdoche - silence stands for a greater meaning

Understatement - An hour of city holds maybe a minute of these remnants of a time when silence reigned