A Study of Reading Habits - Annotations

‘Getting my nose’

First person: dramatic monologue

‘Cured most things short of school’

Implies reading offers solace and a means of escape from an unhappy childhood

‘Still keep cool’ ‘deal out the old right hook’ ‘dirty dogs’

The poet adopts language of pulp fiction. E.g. westerns sense of moral order with heroic protagonist who defeats the antagonist.

‘Inch-thick specs’

Eye sight has deteriorated. Comic (humorous) juxtaposition between reality and fantasy. Adolescent who wears glasses identifying with charismatic, sexually alluring gothic antagonists e.g. Dracula. Incongruous so therefore humorous.

‘I broke them up like meringues’

Figurative language. Exuberant, violent imagery.

‘Don’t read much now’

Sharp tonal shift expressed with monosyllabic prosaic language which conveys the poet’s terrible sense of disillusionment in adulthood.

‘Dude who lets the girl down’ ‘the chap who’s yellow’ ‘keeps the store seems far too familiar’

Poet can now only identify with an unheroic and flawed minor character

‘Get stewed’

Poet now uses alcohol rather than fiction as a means to escape reality’

‘Books are a load of crap’

Angry dismissal of fiction. Poem ends on a truncated metre and falling cadence to convey his sense of disappointment and disillusionment in adulthood.