Making an impression

Alex McAllister
Barbra Crawford
English 102
October 16, 2014
Making a great first impression is something that most aim for when venturing out into any social setting. In the poem “In a prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day” by X.J. Kennedy the author uses the main character to make an impression along with a message. Taking place in a prominent bar, Kennedy introduces us to the boisterous, passionate, and somewhat enlightening main character. An older woman who had dreams of being successful, a good life but let her beauty become her only means to success. Instead she lived a fast life, now dilapidated from the abuse of drugs, alcohol, and sex over the years. The older woman wants to share her story; through song she sang to the other patrons who have decided to listen in. In the poem the women seems to be an older working girl, she informs through her wonderful singing voice and twisted story that life is short and beauty fades, so try not to get by on your looks alone. For she is the perfect example of where you would end up, which would be in a bar old, and alone with nothing to show for except your story.
At the beginning of the poem we are introduced to the main character “one day / Rose a lady in skunk with topheavy sway, / Raised a knobby red finger” (lines 1-3). Alone, this woman was an attention seeker and clearly for good reason, she had a horrific odor and yet an angelic voice. She sung about her life story, for the whole bar to hear. From her perspective when she was young; fast, wild, and crazy was second nature to her. In her song she provides detailed experiences that perhaps are questionable. Due to the fact that she is severely intoxicated yet plausible because it’s so effortless for her. For instance “In a car like the Roxy I’d roll to the track, / A steel-guitar trio, a bar in the back,” (lines 21-22).
Many enlightening lyrics had been sung by Kennedy’s main voice in the poem. She had hopes that the occupants specifically women would hear her story of how working towards an unworthy cause led her down a path of ruin, see her today and realize that she could have been attractive, and try not to follow the damaging path she had chosen. “Let you hold in mind, girls, that your beauty must pass like a lovely white clover that rusts with its grass / Keep your bottoms off bar stools and marry you young / or be left // an old barrel with many a bung.” (lines 29-32). She had once been a socialite that took pride in singing, appearance, and trends. Not any more she was just a resilient woman, she had over come so many disappointments due to time passing her by.
In the poem “In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day” X.J. Kennedy uses verse to portray a woman’s self-portrait of herself to onlookers in the crowd. With her overcoming many obstacles throughout life, she had no regrets about her choices. From drug use she admitted to or the prostitution instead she decided to profess her life to those in the audience. Though her song a message can be heard, that time is short and precious. She was the perfect example of where one might end up if they go along with the notion that they may be able to get by on their looks alone. Although the poem is one that presents itself as one that is sad through the events that take place its more so bittersweet because the main character is strong and a survivor passing her story along, in hopes that others will see the example put forth and not follow in her footsteps. Most who have unsettling story’s about their past usually are too timid to share the details of such, “In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day” portrays just the opposite of that. The main character voices her trials and tribulations throughout her life and brings them to the forefront for onlookers, with hopes that they will hear and understand where she is coming from. Realizing that time is a precious commodity and that you have to use it wisely was her message. Hopefully it was received, and through it those who were following in a similar path would make some changes to their lives and the actions that they took in the future.
Works Cited
Kennedy, X.J. “In A Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day.”The Norton Inrtoduction to
Literature, shorter 10th ed. Booth, Alison and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. 674-75. Print.

Cited: Kennedy, X.J. “In A Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day.”The Norton Inrtoduction to Literature, shorter 10th ed. Booth, Alison and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. 674-75. Print.