I Have No Gun,but I Can Spit
I Have No Gun,but I Can Spit - meaning Summary
Personal Boundary, Playful Threat
Auden's short lyric sketches the boundary of personal space as a lightly comic, defensive assertion. The speaker defines a narrow "frontier" around the body and warns strangers not to cross it without invitation. The tone mixes ironic formality with intimate candor, turning a small physical distance into a sovereign territory. The final line supplies a playful, nonlethal threat that enforces privacy. It treats social etiquette and consent with wry humor.
Read Complete AnalysesSome thirty inches from my nose The frontier of my Person goes, And all the untilled air between Is private pagus or demesne. Stranger, unless with bedroom eyes I beckon you to fraternize, Beware of rudely crossing it: I have no gun, but I can spit.
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