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An Analysis Of Ellen Hopkins's 'You Know My Story'

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The poem, “You Know My Story”, is an excerpt from a larger poem, and novel, called Glass by Ellen Hopkins. The book is the second book in a series of three describing the rollercoaster life of Kristina Georgia Snow while on drugs. The free verse poetry books were very largely inspired by Hopkins’ daughter’s own drug addiction (Goodreads). Her daughter, Cristal was very much like Kristina from the story. She became addicted to the same drug as Kristina and even had a child that was later adopted by Hopkins, just like the character from the story (Hopkins). The poem is written in a very interesting way. If someone were to read the poem straight across as literature is meant to be read, the poem would be very descriptive and tell a short story on just one page. But with many of Hopkins’ works, if the poem is read just using the stand alone words or phrases on the right, a new poem is born. This new poem is a much creepier summary of the larger poem. In this case the new poem reads, “my dive into insanity, no longer perfect, Kristina became the monster” (Hopkins). The entire poem has a very dark mood. It has very deep traces of helplessness and a misplaced self identity for the narrator. The tone shifts a few times, but throughout it shares the same darkness of the mood. First there is anger, then sadness and, finally complete vulnerability. Any piece of literature that talks about an addict of any sort, tends to be very dark and depressing. This poem is no exception to that idea. If a person was new to the works of Ellen Hopkins, they might not be aware of the fact that her books are poetry. The free verse style lends itself well to the writing of a novel, but it is not the type of rhyming poetry that most people are used to. It seems more like a book than a poem at first, yet if reread the poetic nature is made more noticeable. Hopkins has stated that she doesn’t plan out her books beforehand because her poetry has to flow naturally and too much planning messes with the natural flow of things (Hopkins).
There is no discernable rhythm or rhyme scheme to this poem. That holds true for most free verse poems. As previously stated, this type of poetry tends to work well when writing an entire book comprised of

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