A Study of Reading Habits
A Study of Reading Habits - meaning Summary
From Innocence to Boredom
The poem traces a reader’s changing relationship with popular books. As a boy, reading provided moral and physical reassurance and a vicarious outlet for aggression and conquest. In adolescence it fuels a mischievous, sexualized bravado. In middle age the speaker grows weary and contemptuous of fiction’s stock characters and predictable plots, concluding that novels now feel stale and worthless. The tone moves from amused fondness to ironic dismissal.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen getting my nose in a book Cured most things short of school, It was worth ruining my eyes To know I could still keep cool, And deal out the old right hook To dirty dogs twice my size. Later, with inch-thick specs, Evil was just my lark: Me and my coat and fangs Had ripping times in the dark. The women I clubbed with sex! I broke them up like meringues. Don't read much now: the dude Who lets the girl down before The hero arrives, the chap Who's yellow and keeps the store Seem far too familiar. Get stewed: Books are a load of crap.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.