What are the first two lines of the poem "What is Red" by Mary O'Neill?

The poem “What is Red?” is included in Mary O’Neill’s children's book Hailstones and Halibut Bones: Adventures in Color, which she wrote in 1961.

The first two lines of the two-stanza poem are

Red is a sunset

Blazing and bright.

The first two lines are written as a metaphor and set the tone of the poem, which is a series of metaphors describing what the color red “is.” By writing the poem as a list of metaphors, O’Neill appeals to the reader's senses through vivid imagery so children can identify with red as a color with a variety of associations. As she makes her list of common—and less common—items associated with the color red, the reader can see, hear, and feel “red.” It becomes much more than a color. At first, the reader is told “red is a sunset,” but as the poem progresses it becomes, among other things, “a feeling,” “a brick,” “hotness,” “lipstick,” “a signal,” and “a Valentine heart.”

In addition to metaphors, Mary O’Neill uses personification in the poem:

And when you’re angry

Red runs through your head.

This is an example of personification because Mary O'Neill says the color red is capable of running, a human behavior.

Throughout the poem, the author demonstrates how important the color red is in everyday life.