Placed, Loved Ones ☆

Question 1

What is Placed, Loved Ones about?

Answer 1

Mocks society’s idea that you can find belonging or happiness in a place or person - such an idea is fundamentally flawed.

Question 2

‘No, I have never found..’
‘Nor met that special one’

Answer 2

• Immediate negator - instant and forceful rejection of society’s expectation that you find happiness in place/person.

Question 3

There are consistent use of negators throughout the poem (examples). What do these suggest?

Answer 3

• Rejecting social conventions/norms of how to live life.

Question 4

‘This is my proper ground, Here I shall stay’

Answer 4

• Italics/Metaphor - impersonates society’s voice with intention to purposely mock the pompous, self-important notion of belonging. Foolish.

Question 5

‘claim’ ‘own’ ‘name’

Answer 5

• Legal /contractual language - cold, transactional process in relationship, rather than a meaningful bond. Lose identity.

Question 6

Change from ‘I’ to ‘You’

Answer 6

• Separates himself from society to critique their choices.

Question 7

‘You ask them to bear you off irrevocably’

Answer 7

• Relationships involve compromise and tolerance of the other’s failings forever, restrictive.

Question 8

‘So that it’s not your fault Should the town turn dreary,
The girl a dolt.’

Answer 8

• Not taking responsibilities for themselves/their own lives by aligning/depending on another. Almost cowardly.
• End up blaming them for the inevitable disappointment.
• End stop = permanence?

Question 9

‘Yet, having missed them, you’re bound, none the less, to act if what you settled for mashed you’

(2 possible interpretations)

Answer 9

• Argument marker - volta. Choosing a place is not freeing, but neither is not. Element of self-deception. Bound to act wise for staying away but is equally restricted and lacks freedom, without place/person.

Question 10

‘you’re bound, none the less, to act if what you settled for mashed you’

Answer 10

• Trapped by a life of pretending that who you have settled for has made you happy, a routine of performance.

Question 11

‘wiser to keep away’

Answer 11

• Avoid the fantasy that the ‘one’ is out there in a place/person, non-existent.

Question 12

Rhyme Scheme of Placed, Loved Ones:

Answer 12

• Regular to reflect the forced, mechanical life, without freedom.
• Repetitive structure via octets - restricted.