Comments on: The poet who stole breakfast

By: Mitchell Halberstadt

Mitchell Halberstadt — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 21:35:19 +0000

I suspect that the absence of the words “I’m Sorry” at the end of the title is deliberate (and brilliantly ironic).

Then, too, I was struck by the absence of a final line, in a stanza by itself (though obviously Williams didn’t intend THAT much irony or levity):

“Now I have diarrhea.”

By the way, I’m sure they WERE purple plums — the best, indeed! But a sense of humor never hurts….

By: AnonypussRex

AnonypussRex — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 13:32:50 +0000

Purple plums are the best of plums, so naturally you presume correctly that he would compose a poem to celebrate his theft 🙂

By: Karen Freeman

Karen Freeman — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 02:08:18 +0000

For some reason, I always hear that poem in Billy Collins voice.

By: Alicia

Alicia — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 20:46:18 +0000

I love that poem. He’s so not sorry.

By: Janis Mara

Janis Mara — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 18:14:41 +0000

I am enchanted at this new approach to “This is Just to Say.” One would think by now every possible angle of analysis would have been exhausted, but no. Brava!

By: tanita

tanita — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 14:13:37 +0000

☺ This always reminds me of my late first year English professor, a twiggy black man who was 6’9″ and who read this – and every poem – in a laconic drawl, hurrying through the title as if the whole thing were peripheral. “Oh, by the way – this.” Even the title, “This is Just to Say” bespeaks a certain “this is extraneous detail, I’m off doing more important things,” attitude, which of course leads one to believe that the scofflaw will scoff again. Repeatedly. As long as the plums are in season.

By: Frako L

Frako L — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 02:21:22 +0000

The poem is read aloud in the new Jim Jarmusch-Adam Driver film PATERSON.