Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The poem has a first-person-narrator who reveals his inner thought process, dreams and fears.
Form and Meter
The poem consists of 9 stanzas of varying length. It features the stream of consciousness of the narrator in prose form.
Metaphors and Similes
Metaphors:
l. 38: "The lobby zombies"
dead inside, following basic urges without conscious thought
l. 96: “that pleasant prison dream”
as pleasant as possible in a very undesired, restricted situation
Similes:
l. 84-85: “the neighbors all toothless and dry haired
like those hag masses”
uneducated, unhygienic
l. 99: “I see love as odd as wearing shoes”
unnatural, man-made
Alliteration and Assonance
Alliterations:
l. 24: “her family and her friends”
l. 28: “lawful wedded wife”
l. 33: “clanky cans”
l. 44: “running rampant”
l. 96: “pleasant prison”
Irony
The eighth stanza reveals that the situation of the narrator is ironic. He spends the first seven stanzas describing a very traditional and old-fashioned way of life and marriage, but makes it clear at every opportunity that he dislikes these kinds of situations. He goes so far as to imagine ways in which he would disrupt every step of the way. In stanza eight however, it is revealed that, despite his apparent protest against a traditional married life, the narrator is desperately craving exactly this.
Genre
The poem is a prose poem.
Setting
The poem takes place entirely inside the narrator’s mind as he envisions how a traditional married life would work out for him. Most of this hypothetic life is set in a small town (in stanza 6 revealed to be in Connecticut) with the honeymoon taking them to Niagara Falls, spanning over several years. In stanza seven the narrator switches country life to city life and imagines several possibilities of married life in New York City, both in an upper and a lower class situation.
Tone
The first seven stanzas are written in a mocking, satirical tone as the narrator amuses himself by imagining his spin on a traditional small town married life. In the final two stanzas however, the tone changes to longing, as it is revealed that for all his mocking, the narrator is indeed wishing for marriage.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist of the poem is the unnamed first-person-narrator. There is not much explicitly stated about him, apart from the fact that he is male, ostensibly lives in the United States and is currently single and childless. Throughout the poem, the narrator expresses disdain for the typical small town family life although he is secretly craving it. In stanza seven, the narrator implies that he is from a lower class, though this might simply be due to his exaggeration of his most likely family situation. In stanza eight it is revealed that the narrator is currently at the end of an age in which his peers are starting to get married and have kids, which implies that he is probably in his thirties.
Major Conflict
The major conflict of the poem is taking place inside the narrator’s mind. While his personality clashes with the typical small town married life, loneliness and the wish not to regret anything in old age are pushing him towards a more conventional way of life.
Climax
The climax of the poem happens in stanza eight. The narrator is finally revealing that he is considering following a traditional path in life because loneliness and the fear of ending up alone are pushing him.
Foreshadowing
Stanza 1:
In the first stanza the narrator exclaims that "[i]t's beautiful to feel!" (l. 7). While he is speaking about the feelings of his hypothetical girlfriend, this sentiment foreshadows that the motivation for the narrator’s thought experiment is based on his deep feelings of loneliness and craving for societal acceptance.
Understatement
There are no instances of understatement in the poem.
Allusions
l. 74: “bag of broken Bach records”
allusion to the Baroque German composer Johann Sebastian Bach
l. 75: “Tack Della Francesca all over its crib”
allusion to the Italian Renaissance painter Piero Della Francesca
l. 76-77: “Sew the Greek alphabet on its bib
And build for its playpen a roofless Parthenon”
allusions to classical Greek culture
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Synecdoche:
l. 32: “in their eyes you could see some obscene honeymoon”
in their imagination
Personification
l. 11: “strangled by a tie”
the tie gains the human ability to move and strangle the narrator
Hyperbole
Stanza 2:
In the second stanza the narrator is imagining meeting his in-laws for the first time. At first he is wondering whether or not they would even like him, but as soon as they announce their intention to marry, the attitude immediately shifts from liking him to seeing him as their son.
Stanza 7:
In the seventh stanza the narrator is mentally exploring other possible paths of life for him. While doing this, he greatly exaggerates by imagining two completely different ends of the spectrum and describing the extremes (very low-class and very upper-class).
Stanza 8:
While revealing that his motif for considering a traditional marriage is fear, the narrator greatly exaggerates the outcome if he were not to marry at all, by stating that “[a]ll in the universe married but me” (l. 107). This emphasizes the loneliness he feels as well as his apparent underlining belief that marriage is ultimately part of a socially respected and accepted life.
Onomatopoeia
There are no instances of onomatopoeia in the poem.
