To a Small Boy Standing on My Shoes While I Am Wearing Them
To a Small Boy Standing on My Shoes While I Am Wearing Them - meaning Summary
Boundaries with a Child
A crotchety narrator addresses a small boy standing on his shoes and refuses to indulge childish play. The speaker insists on adult boundaries, expresses irritation at intrusive affection, and rejects responsibility for entertaining the child. Humor and exaggerated threats underline persistent exasperation. The poem frames a comic clash between adult decorum and childlike intrusion, ending with a mordant wish that his own life had been less burdened by such encounters.
Read Complete AnalysesLet's straighten this out, my little man, And reach an agreement if we can. I entered your door as an honored guest. My shoes are shined and my trousers are pressed, And I won't stretch out and read you the funnies And I won't pretend that we're Easter bunnies. If you must get somebody down on the floor, What in the hell are your parents for? I do not like the things that you say And I hate the games that you want to play. No matter how frightfully hard you try, We've little in common, you and I. The interest I take in my neighbor's nursery Would have to grow, to be even cursory, And I would that performing sons and nephews Were carted away with the daily refuse, And I hold that frolicsome daughters and nieces Are ample excuse for breaking leases. You may take a sock at your daddy's tummy Or climb all over your doting mummy, But keep your attentions to me in check, Or, sonny boy, I will wring your neck. A happier man today I'd be Had someone wrung it ahead of me.
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