III. Analyzing details from the poem using TWIST analysis. Read the following details from the poem and identify it by using TWIST analysis. Choose from the box the letter of your answer.
____11. Despite the difficulties of her life, the speaker keeps going. The central theme that this creates is the importance of persevering in the face of hardship.
____12. The simple dialect of the speaker suggests a life with limited educational access. The varied line lengths mirror the ups and downs of the staircase and the path of life.
____13. Grim yet determined: The speaker has struggled much in life, yet still pushes forward.
____14. “Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it and splinters, and boards torn up...” The staircase the speaker describes is an old, rickety, dangerous staircase representing the difficulties of her life.
____15. Hughes includes many words and phrases with negative connotations: tacks, splinters, boards torn up, no carpet, bare, dark, no light, kinder hard.