Poetry analysis Living off other people - Welfare by Jenny Joseph

Why did I choose the poem?

I chose the poem because I like this poem. It is exciting. It is about flowers, a well-kept house, velvet chairs not scraping a polished floor, gray tie, pearl pin, fresh shirt, well-kept hands and a clean garage. They are all nice but, in the second stanza, it says that you get worried because you have to race and scurry to keep the place clean. I don't want to be worried about keeping the house clean. I always want to be happy. In the third stanza, it mentions, there is a gleaming house somewhere out there owned by a man wearing a fitted suit. He does not look worried. You can be happy and have a gleaming house. Jenny the poet said that she is wearing shapeless coats. She doesn't need to polish or dig or set her dining table or go to the office. She does not need to have hammocks and lawns. She doesn't get her antiques protected against insects. Maybe she doesn't have any antiques. She is looking into a dining room. She likes it. Maybe Jenny gets money from the government – welfare money. I do not want to get welfare money and not have a nice house.

Worry, scurry, are rhyming words used in the second stanza. Mechanics, panics are also rhyming words used in the second stanza. They make the poem sound good.

Poem taken from: Cox, M. (2014). Cambridge Checkpoint English Coursebook. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.