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READ THIS
The poem is a very brief but poignant look at the desperate cry for help from a person in
despair, and the ironic response with which this plea is met.
THE POET & HER POEM
Gabriela Pearse was born in Colombia (South America) of a father from Trinidad but with a
British mother. She would later move to the United Kingdom, where she studied at Warwick
University.
Her poem -- "Today" -- sums up very briefly the impersonal world in which we find
ourselves today, a world in which one person has no longer the time for another's despair.
Pearse uses very short but stabbing verses and lines. Indeed, there are just four verses, while
none of the lines exceeds six syllables. Does the poet have any specific reason for doing this?
On the other hand, is there any reason why the number of lines in each verse gets fewer as the
poem proceeds -- from five lines in verse 1, to four in verses 2 and 3, and then only three lines
in the final stanza?
The poem must also not be seen simply as the story of one person in need but is rather a
microcosm of today's world where people are becoming more and more individualistic, and less
and less caring.
Today we are concerned more about ourselves and less about others, more about our material
pursuits and less about helping others whom we meet on our journey through this life.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"Asking to be held
like no-one held her."
- What is the subject of the participle "asking"? (1)
[Need help?]
The subject of the participle is "a woman", which is in the first line of the first stanza.
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- What is meant by "like no-one held her"? (4)
[Need help?]
It is as if this woman has never ever had comfort in her whole life. Indeed, her life would appear
to have been led in a state of world-sorrow and world-loneliness.
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- What language device is being used in the above quotation? (1)
[Need help?]
It's a simile, isn't it? Similes are comparisons where one thing is said to be like another,
or as another. Apart from the use of like or as, however, a simile may also
be recognised by the word "than", as in "The puff-adder was uglier than a sack of
pus".
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"Asking to be fed
like no-one fed her."
- Explain what it is that the woman needs to eat. (3)
[Need help?]
The woman is clearly not hungry for a plate of food -- well, she may be but this is not her
primary need. No, the woman needs to be fed love, caring, concern -- and, above all, she
needs empathy and not just sympathy.
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"She crawled beneath
my skirt trembling and
afraid and clasped
my lifeboat legs."
- What image is being used in these four lines? Explain your answer. (4)
[Need help?]
What is it that crawls beneath a woman's skirt, trembling and afraid? A puppy?
It would seem, therefore, that the poet is using the image of a puppy which has just been
removed from its mother -- and crawls beneath the skirt of its new owner, trembling and afraid.
Indeed, its first night alone will be spent whimpering for the loss of everything, and afraid even
of the shadows.
The woman therefore, like a puppy, is also trembling and afraid -- in a world where she finds
no love or affection, where she desperately seeks to hide beneath the skirt of someone who
appears to care.
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- Why would the subject be crawling "beneath my skirt"? (4)
[Need help?]
As already stated in the previous answer, the woman is like a very small puppy just removed
from its home. The skirt affords protection for the puppy and so it creeps there for security --
although it is still not sure whether this protection will be lasting.
The woman is seeking protection from the poet, like a puppy hiding beneath a skirt -- but, also
like the puppy, is not at all certain she will indeed find such protection.
The skirt also represents all that is secret and protective. It is the gateway to the womb, the
place of conception and creation. It therefore represents the protection that the womb would
afford. It is indeed a most special place of comfort.
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- Explain the significance of "my lifeboat legs". (4)
[Need help?]
The image is changed here. From the puppy hiding beneath the skirt, the poet describes her
legs as if they were lifeboats, the only means of survival when the ship sinks. In other words,
the woman who metaphorically clings to them has seen her life sink like a ship, and all that
stands between her and eternal drowning are the poet's metaphorical life-boat legs.
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"But I had meetings
to go to,
and a world to save."
- Explain the irony of this final verse. (4)
[Need help?]
The poet has spent three verses describing how desperate this woman is, with a soul that bears
a gash both wide and deep, how she hides beneath the poet's skirt like a puppy that is lost,
afraid and trembling.
And yet, says the poet, she really has no time to devote to this woman because she has other
meetings to attend, meetings that will save the world -- as if this wretch is not just as important
as the world, and indeed represents that very world which the poet is trying to save?
It is a thing that is hotly debated: how important is the individual with reference to the group?
By attending all those meetings, the poet might in fact be making a major impact on alleviating
the distress of thousands of people. Is this one person therefore any more important that all
of those thousands that the meetings will help?
It is, however, a delicious irony nevertheless.
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Some general questions:
- Is there any reason for the short verses and the very brief lines? (4)
[Need help?]
Here are some ideas:
- Is the poet making her poem direct, capturing the catastrophe succinctly in short, stabbing
verses?
- Is the poet presenting this woman as a microcosm of the world, a very small example of a
problem that is truly enormous? She therefore presents this microcosm in as brief a setting as
possible.
- The poem starts with a 5 line verse and thereupon the verses get shorter and shorter. Is
this meant to represent a whirlpool which sucks everything into its vortex of
destruction?
Can you think of any other possibilities?
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- Why is this poem entitled "Today"? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet presents this solitary picture of a woman in despair as a microcosm of the universe
that is the world today. It is therefore not meant to be taken simply as the story of one woman
but the story of everyone. It is the story of today's civilization which neglects everyone in its
pursuit of materialism, power and the supremacy of individualism.
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