READING
A POEM A DAY 9 9.12.2016
Men
Talking
Wendy
Cope
Anecdotes
and jokes,
On
and on and on.
If
you’re with several blokes,
It’s
anecdotes and jokes.
If
you were to die
Of
boredom, there and then,
They’d
notice, by and by,
If
you were to die.
But
it could take a while.
They’re
having so much fun.
You
neither speak nor smile.
It
could take a while.
Twelve
short lines. Rhyming couplets, then broken triplets.
jokes/blokes/jokes
while/smile/while
The rhythm is bouncy, as with lively conversation in a
group. Then the banter turns serious.
If
you were to die
would
they notice? The seriousness is made comic by wondering if you were
to die
of
boredom, there and then.
Would the poem be stronger if you were to die of a heart
attack? It would certainly be different. Then, of course, you do not
actually die of boredom. You're just bored. And who is 'you'? The poet?
Is this a skirmish in the 'war of the sexes', with
the poet as the only woman in a bantering group? Seems possible, as the
poem is called Men Talking and Cope is a woman. Would it matter? Perhaps 'you' is a
man. Men die of boredom too.
Though it is dangerously hackneyed, the brio of the
versifying and its disarming simplicity catch the reader, as if
overhearing a boisterous group in full swing.
Time is skilfully drawn through the poem.
On
and on and on/there and then/by and by/But it could take a while/It
could take a while.
The
repetition presents the boredom. The only antidote is Time. Or to move
on to another set of friends, perhaps with less, or different, jokes
and better anecdotes.
Might
they be just as boring? Is this a scourge of the human condition?
Try
calling the poem, People
Talking, and
rewrite using
folks for
blokes?
Naw.
Boring. The hackneyed is the humorous. And the humour, gentle yet
telling, is Cope's poetic gift, leaving the reader wanting more.
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