The elements and conflicts about Golden Retrieval by Mark Doty?

Answer 1

The poem is filled with literary elements. Too many to list really. There's rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, Synesthesia, and metaphor, just to name a few.

I don't know if I'd call it a conflict, but the poem shows a dog's attempt to bring his owner back to the present. The two are walking in a park together, and the dog is loving his time there. He lives only in the present, literally seeing the world as a series of images with no real sense of a continuum. Even the concept of "tomorrow" is something he is unclear about.

The owner, on the other hand, is not at all in the present. During their walk, he is thinking about the past, about regret, missed opportunities, and grief. He also thinks about the future: the things coming up in his life.

The dog wants to help his owner and bring him back into the present, so he barks at him.