Friday, March 28, 2008

Warning, by Jenny Joseph, poem #246



Let me start off by saying that this was one of my favorite poems. While reading it I could just picture a little old lady, running around and being rather mischievous, i thought it was hilarious. I think that this poem really shows how up-tight people today are. Stanza 3 really shows this saying "But now we must have clothes that keep us dry/ And pay our rent and not swear in the street/ And set a good example for the children./ We must have friends to dinner and read the papers." People today conform to the standards set before them, never straying in fear of being singled out and ridiculed. Yet in old age, people tend to care less of what people think of them. It is like the saying that as you get older, the more you resort to your childhood and the things that you missed out on. Elderly people are always seen as being able to get away with more things, being more free natured than ourselves, and being able to get away with it. I also like the line "But maybe I ought to practice a little now?/ So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised/ when suddenly I am old and start to wear purple." (20-22). Here the speaker is cutting away the defining line between the expected behavior of an adult and that of an elderly person. The speaker would like to live such a care free life, and jokingly states that she should start acting care free now, that way her friends are not surprised when she suddenly goes against everything that society has taught her, 'warning' (as the title says) the people around her of the person that she is going to become. I find that this poem is telling people to live a little. You only have one life to live, do not wait until the end to stop caring about the views of others, stop caring now, that way you can live a happier free life with a free spirit.
The speaker of this poem is very important. The speaker of the poem apparently is a woman, since she talks about the Red Hat Society. In this poem, she is almost mocking the need to stay in line and function by society's rules; mocking the need to set a good example for our children who are just going to become old people who don't function by the rules, for following the ways of others and conforming so that we do not stand out, for reading the paper about things that really are of no importance to ourselves but pretending to be interested anyway. This can be seen in stanza 3 (as printed above). The speaker shows the restrictions of conforming society by showing the free spirit that she will be able to have as an elderly person, "I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired/ And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells/ And run my stick along the public railings/ and make up for the sobriety of my youth. / I shall go out in my slippers in the rain/ And pick the flowers from other people's gardens/ And learn to spit."(5-11). The speaker is telling the story of all people's lives, showing in how our early years we must conform to society's standards so as not to stand out from the norm, yet in old age, we are done with society. We no longer care what other people think of us and we do things soully on how we want to do them. I think the speaker is sending the message to all of the readers that life is too short for us to conform, we must stand out and live a little, and forget how other perceive us and our actions.
The rhyme and meter are also important in this poem, mostly because there aren't any. The lack of a rhyme scheme shows the freedom of speech, thought, and action that all people have. It shows that freedom that we all have, and shows that we are allowed to use it. There is also a lack of meter in this poem, since this poem is a free verse. This also shows the freedom that is ours to take advantage of. Each line is a stopped line, where the end of each line is like a natural speech pause. This form of writing makes it feel as though the speaker is talking to the reader. The rhyme and meter both go to show the importance of the freedom of speech, thought, and action that we all have. It is there for all of us, it is just our choice whether to take advantage of it or not.
This poem can come under the title of a satire. This is because the speaker is conforming to the expected way of life because she feels as though it is her duty, yet she hopes for and preaches about the day when she will be able to do was she pleases. She ridicules the ways of life that most people religiously follow because she wants people to step away from this way of life. Her situation could also be seen as ironic because she is preaching about leading the life you want and being free, yet she is still conforming to the laws that she is ridiculing. while this may be the case, it is obvious that a satire seems to describe this poem rather well. Another device used in this poem is tone. The tone in this poem is one of longing . Longing for the day when everything can be different, when one can do as they pleased without facing the consequences. She longs for the day when she will be able to act as she wishes and do as she pleases. The sense of longing seems to show the reader how important it is for us to be ourselves in every situation and to always be true to ourselves rather then conform to what society would like us to be. Without this sense of longing, this poem would not show people how important it is to stay true to ourselves.

6 comments:

Kla said...

Thanks, this really helped out with my revision for my English literature exam.

Ben M. said...

Thank you. You present your analysis very well =]

Unknown said...

Some very astute points. You could have presented them better in some places, but this is encouraging.

News without big words said...

hi there.
it kinda strange and silly this but i wrote my homework out and it seemed exacly the same as what you wrote. could you be so kind to asnwer these two quesitons
a) have you been to interhigh?
B) was your english teacher jude allen?

i know this sound stupid but i'm spooked

faith said...

"The speaker of the poem apparently is a woman, since she talks about the Red Hat Society. "

You've got it wrong. This poem was written in 1961. And it is this poem INSPIRED the Red Hat Society, which was founded in 1998.

Cottonbud said...

Thank you very much...