100,000 Pennies
100,000 Pennies - meaning Summary
Wealth Made Impractical
This humorous poem presents a narrator who breaks into a bank and ends up with an absurdly large haul: a "hundred thousand dollars worth of pennies." The speaker celebrates the windfall but quickly confronts its impracticality—so much low-value coinage that everyday purchases become awkward or impossible. The poem turns the idea of wealth into comic irony, contrasting criminal success with persistent pennilessness and teasing the gap between value and usefulness.
Read Complete AnalysesI broke into the bank on Sunday, You should see the money I got. I couldn't drag it home 'til Monday, 'Cause it sure weighed an awful lot. Then I sat down to count it, And much to my surprise, A whole lotta little brown, little round coins, Rolled out before my eyes Chorus: I've got a hundred thousand dollars worth of pennies, Not a solitary dollar or a dime, And I don't believe there's many, Rich men with a problem like mine. And I don't think this is any Kind of ending to a perfect crime. I've got a hundred thousand dollars worth of pennies, And I'm spendin' it a penny at a time! Now a steak sure would taste delicious, And I've forgot how a beer would feel, But the man just might get suspicious, If I gave him eight hundred pennies for a meal. So I guess I'll just weigh myself again, And buy me another stick of gum, I've got a hundred thousand dollars worth of pennies, Lord! And I'm livin' like a penniless bum! Chorus: I've got a hundred thousand dollars worth of pennies, Not a solitary dollar or a dime, And I don't believe there's many, Rich men with a problem like mine.
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