University:
Alabama State University
Course:
ENG 303 | Advanced Grammar
Academic year:

2024
Views:

492

Pages:

1
Author:

Sbabalwe T.

The poem deals with the day-to-day lives of the unemployed people and compares them to the lives of the rich people. The speaker notes how the unemployed resemble the wealthy in doing no work and sleeping late. Meaninglessness of their lives. Poet is jealous of their leisure’s. Third person POV Moving Through the Silent Crowd Speaker is aware of the silence and lower positions held in society. Creates Highlighting their Transferred epithet→ suggests their lives lack interest. meaninglessness Sense of discrimination- they are made to look lazy and irresponsible Moving through the silent crowd a sad and bleak image of the lower class. A sombre tone is created  Boring Who stand behind dull cigarettes The unemployed Waste time These men who idle in the road Unemployed I have the sense of falling light. Hope is fading Gives a personal point of view. The people he sees look hopeless and pessimistic. Unemployed people are being discriminated against and are thought of being lazy. They lounge at corners of the street Anaphora: monotonous routine And greet friends with a shrug of shoulder And turn their empty pockets out, Mocking The cynical gestures of the poor. Sarcasm: stating that men who work in offices are better men (according to society) These people convey an atmosphere of hopelessness due to their lack of work to do and the money to spend with for their needs. Thus, bringing them to poverty. Comparing imagery between the rich and the poor. Rich “sit at desks” whereas the poor “lounge at corners”, the rich “take much pay” but the poor “turn their empty pockets out”. Now they’ve no work like better men ➔ Simile Who sit at desks and take much pay They sleep long nights and rise at ten Employed To watch the hours that drain away. Sarcastic: The poet is jealous of the intensity of the deprivation and misery experienced by the I’m jealous of the weeping hours unemployed. Transferred epithets→ they are starving as they lack money and Anaphora: They stare through with such hungry eyes, food. The speaker I’m haunted by these images cant Expressing his concerns interfere as I’m haunted by their emptiness. he is just the observer. • STRUCTURE IRONY Free verse The unemployed resemble the No set rhyme scheme except in stanza 3 (he sees their structured, wealthy in doing no work and sleeping late. Both the poor predictable lives as confining and limiting) and wealthy live meaningless lives. Regular structure- indicated predictability of jobless routine. Informal register Enjambment: movement of the speaker walking through the crowd also monotony and predictability of their lives • THEME Unemployment/silence/forced helplessness • TONE First 2 stanzas → judgmental/critical Last 2 stanzas → guilt/self-critical