Further Instructions
Further Instructions - meaning Summary
Songs as Unruly Companions
The speaker addresses his poems as wayward companions, blaming them for idleness and lack of nobility while confessing his own partial madness and anxiety. He envies a stable, ordinary life and fears the poems will come to a "very bad end." Yet he spoils the newest poem with exotic garments—China silk and scarlet trousers—to bestow taste and social rank, a gesture mixing care, irony, and self-conscious theatricality.
Read Complete AnalysesCome, my songs, let us express our baser passions. Let us express our envy for the man with a steady job and no worry about the future. You are very idle, my songs, I fear you will come to a bad end. You stand about the streets, You loiter at the corners and bus-stops, You do next to nothing at all. You do not even express our inner nobilitys, You will come to a very bad end. And I? I have gone half-cracked. I have talked to you so much that I almost see you about me, Insolent little beasts! Shameless! Devoid of clothing! But you, newest song of the lot, You are not old enough to have done much mischief. I will get you a green coat out of China With dragons worked upon it. I will get you the scarlet silk trousers From the statue of the infant Christ at Santa Maria Novella; Lest they say we are lacking in taste, Or that there is no caste in this family.
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