The Quiet World Poetry Analysis
The Quite World by Jeffrey McDaniel
In an effort to get people to look into each other’s eyes more, and also to appease the mutes, the government has decided to allot each person exactly one hundred and sixty-seven words, per day.
When the phone rings, I put it to my ear without saying hello. In the restaurant
I point at chicken noodle soup.
I am adjusting well to the new way.
Late at night, I call my long distance lover, proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.
I saved the rest for you.
When she doesn’t respond,
I know she’s used up all her words, so I slowly whisper I love you thirty-two and a third times.
After that, we just sit on the line and listen to each other breathe.
Mariya Boteva
Introduction to Literature 210a
Filitsa Mullen
10/18/2014
A Human Society’s Need of “The Quiet World”
The Quiet World by Jeffrey McDaniel is poem in which human fallen nature is expressed in a brilliant way. What do I mean by human fallen nature? Well, no matter what background of belief systems we each come from, every person on this planet would agree that human beings have internal weaknesses and that they are mostly connected to our inability to communicate with one another. Each person possesses a character flaw, which affects our communication process with other people. It is because of this fact that McDaniel’s poem manages to attract every type of possible audience to its’ reading and does not exclude anybody. The Quiet World is a portrayal of a fictional place where its’ government has decided to allocate exactly one hundred and sixty-seven words to each citizen in a bid “to get people to look into each other’s eyes more”(1/2). The speaker is a member of this utopian state and reflects on this recent policy through a conversation with his long distance lover. The poems’ simplicity and excellent portrayal of humanity through a “quiet world” can touch even the coldest of hearts.
When looking at the title The Quiet World, I
In an effort to get people to look into each other’s eyes more, and also to appease the mutes, the government has decided to allot each person exactly one hundred and sixty-seven words, per day.
When the phone rings, I put it to my ear without saying hello. In the restaurant
I point at chicken noodle soup.
I am adjusting well to the new way.
Late at night, I call my long distance lover, proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.
I saved the rest for you.
When she doesn’t respond,
I know she’s used up all her words, so I slowly whisper I love you thirty-two and a third times.
After that, we just sit on the line and listen to each other breathe.
Mariya Boteva
Introduction to Literature 210a
Filitsa Mullen
10/18/2014
A Human Society’s Need of “The Quiet World”
The Quiet World by Jeffrey McDaniel is poem in which human fallen nature is expressed in a brilliant way. What do I mean by human fallen nature? Well, no matter what background of belief systems we each come from, every person on this planet would agree that human beings have internal weaknesses and that they are mostly connected to our inability to communicate with one another. Each person possesses a character flaw, which affects our communication process with other people. It is because of this fact that McDaniel’s poem manages to attract every type of possible audience to its’ reading and does not exclude anybody. The Quiet World is a portrayal of a fictional place where its’ government has decided to allocate exactly one hundred and sixty-seven words to each citizen in a bid “to get people to look into each other’s eyes more”(1/2). The speaker is a member of this utopian state and reflects on this recent policy through a conversation with his long distance lover. The poems’ simplicity and excellent portrayal of humanity through a “quiet world” can touch even the coldest of hearts.
When looking at the title The Quiet World, I