Beloved brethren,
Look at me trying to better my life
Exposing my delicate skin as fair as the moon,
While it is ready to depart the sky
To the noon angry sun, making a living,
Begging like a mendicant without a begging bowl
That people may take a look at my unlucky wares
Time used to be walking on slippery floors
But now it is limping on slippery sloppy floors.
Beloved brethren,
Look at me now expanding my coast,
With many heads at my beck and call
Cain and Ahittophel like weeds had
sprung up in my beautiful garden and
I had separated them from the soil beneath
I am making merry but
Time is no longer treading on boggy ground
It is now in possession of metallic wings.
Subject Matter
The poetic persona is interacting directly with the reader(s) and/or listeners.
In the first stanza, the poetic persona is presented as a poor man/woman. He is working in the scorching sun trying to make a living and to him, as seen in lines 8 & 9, the time is very slow even slower than it used to be.
In the second stanza, the poetic persona is presented as a rich man/woman now, expanding his businesses and with many people attending to him. He says that evil doers (Cain and Ahitophel who are a murderer and a betrayer respectively in the Bible) had appeared in his beatific life and he has overcome them. He is now making merry but he realises that time is no longer slow, it is now very fast, as seen in the last line ‘…in possession of metallic wings.’
The poem draws our attention to the views of some people about time. A lot of people struggling to survive think that time is too slow while many of the rich think time is too fast.
The Themes
1. The views about time
2. The hardships that come with being poor
3. The harm that comes with being rich.
Poetic Devices
- Similes
1. in Line 3 & 4, the persona’s delicate skin is compared to the sun when it is ready to depart the sky.
2. In Line 6, begging like a mendicant.
3. In Line 13, the two biblical characters are compared to weeds.
- Personification
1. In line 5, the attribute of a man is given to the sun. ‘…the noon angry sun.’
2. In line 7, the wares are said to be unlucky.
3. In line 8 & 9, the time is said to be ‘walking and limping’. These two attributes are for living things.
4. In line 17 & 18, time is said to be in possession of metallic wings. Time is not an animal that can possess wings.
- Alliteration
In line 9, ‘l, sl and pp’ alliterates. ‘slippery sloppy’
- Synecdoche
In line 12, ‘heads’ is used to to represent people.
Allusion
In line 13, Cain and Ahitophel used as reference are biblical characters.
Also note that Metaphor is recurring too.
From these, we can conclude that personification is the predominant device.