"Incident" appears in Natasha Trethewey's Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Native Guard (2006). With stark understatement, the poem narrates an incident of racial terrorism—a cross-burning by the Ku Klux Klan—that has haunted the speaker's family and community for many years. Its use of the pantoum form, which repeats lines in a fixed pattern, echoes the family's yearly repetition of the story. Despite the speaker's claim that "nothing really happened," the poem captures the lasting trauma that racism and hate crimes inflict on their targets.
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We tell the ...
... now green again.
We peered from ...
... the hurricane lamps.
At the cross ...
... fonts of oil.
It seemed the ...
... had all dimmed.
When they were ...
... story every year.
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
Trethewey, Poet Laureate — Browse the Library of Congress's online feature on Natasha Trethewey, the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States.
The Poem Aloud — Natasha Trethewey reads "Incident."
An Interview with the Poet — Watch an interview with Trethewey, courtesy of PBS NewsHour.
The Poet's Life and Work — Read a short biography of Trethewey at Poets.org.
Trethewey's Introduction — The poet reads "Incident" with an introduction about the incident it's based on.
Poetry and Racial Justice — Browse the Poetry Foundation's selection of poems about racial justice and equality, including "Incident."