Poem the deserving poor by Mary Haylet

6 posts / 0 new
Last post
Poem the deserving poor by Mary Haylet

I'm writing a critical analyis on this poem for my literary class. I would welcome your thoughts on it.

The deserving poor

I am I am I am
the deserving poor.
Bring you cast off clothing
to my door.
Thank you thank you thank you
you’re so pure,
you help to keep us going
like manure.
Old dressing tables, bed spreads,
carpets on the fade.
CD players on the blink
we’ve really got it made.
They don’t know how I manage.
They don’t know who I am.
They just know I am grateful
so they couldn’t give a damn.
We don’t refuse a single thing
who knows what might turn up
some rubies in the rubbish
some tea leaves in a cup.
And we should be so lucky
and sorting is such fun
and it’s bound to come in handy
ammunition for my gun.
I am I am I am
the deserving poor.
God help the ones that aren’t
that’s for sure
so thank you thank you thank you
you’re my friend.
We’ll get it sorted
In the end.

Mary Haylet

I think there's always a danger in attempting to communicate unsubtle political and social points through poetry - and it's extremely risky to do so in rhyming couplets. There several places where the effect of rhyme is to produce a couplet that makes no sense whatsoever. "Thank you thank you thank you you’re so pure, you help to keep us going like manure." "And we should be so lucky and sorting is such fun and it’s bound to come in handy ammunition for my gun." There clearly are some points here but I think they'd work better in a short piece of non-fiction prose.

 

Thanks you make an interesting point
I love car boot sales. They're fun. When the power of love overcomes the love of power, we'll find peace. - Jimi Hendrix

~It's a maze for rats to try, it's a race for rats to die.~

A critical analysis? It's written in a sort of childish voice that is reminiscent of a sort of mocking tone. As such, it kind of reads like a jab at 'the deserving poor', but I'm not sure what they're supposed to have done wrong.
I thought it was meant to be a satire about better-off people patronizing the 'deserving poor'.

 

Topic locked