Graphics

The graphic design principle that makes “Faith” an example of multiplicity is Color.

“Color can convey a mood, describe reality, or codify information.  Words like ‘gloomy,’ ‘drab,’ and ‘glittering’ each bring to mind a general climate of colors, a palette of relationships.  Designers use color to make some things stand out (warning signs) and to make other things disappear (camouflage).  Color serves to differentiate and connect, to highlight and hide,” (71).

Each time a new layer of verse is introduced, it appears in a different color.  That is how it makes the piece cumulative: sometimes words from a previous verse will change to the new color and it becomes part of the new verse.  Each word is read when it appears in the new color, so it makes the words that need to be read stand out and brings them to the reader’s attention.  The final result is a complex poem with multiple layers of colors, some words having changed colors over the course of the poem.