“Monolouge” by Hone Tuwhare

The poem is entitled “Monolouge”, written by the poet Hone Tuwhare.Written in the first person, we learn that it is about a low classed worker, and his working conditions The charachter is a very settled man , who enjoys his job and appreciates his position. There is an emphasis on how much he wants to be close to the doors and why.

The poem consists of eight stanzas, which vary in size. It is written more like a prose, as there is no rhyming scheme. Also, there is the effect of enjambent, which gives the poem a more serious tone.

The poet uses the word door eight times in the poem, because he wants to emphasize thee importance of it to him. In the second stanza, he explains the disadvantages of being near the door, such as the “cold creeping”, and “hot dust clogging the hose, but says he still wouldn’t get away from the doors. He is away from the people who shout intsructuons in his ears, tells us he is low in the hiearchy. Also, being near the door, he is the one who greets the newcomers and strangers and shows them directions, which he enjoys too.

Stanza’s five and six are the only ones with no reference to the door. This leads to a change of tone and subject. In stanza five, he talks about the luck of the succesful workers, and the facial expressions of the unlucky ones, which he sasy he “cannot easily forget”. This is a hint that it relates to the poet’s personal experiences, and that he has most probably been unlucky or unsuccesful in an event or job. In the sixth stanza, the speaker relates to his own fortune of working in his position, and states his fears about the job. He is scared that the company will employ new people, and has a chance of getting fired. He even feels that he should look for other jobs before the “axe falls”. Another one of his fears is his company failing. We can see this because he uses the word dying, rather than death.

In the third stanza, the poet focuses on the use of sounds. He uses assonance, when he says rising, thumping, thrusting, putting, kneading, shaping. The repeating -ing sound speeds up the tempo of the poem. Also, there is alliteration in the second stanza, “cold creeping”, which makes the term much more effective.

The last stanza then goes back to talking about the door. This time he has a different approach to wanting to be there. The last line is “incase an eartquak occurs or fire breaks out, you know?”. This concludes that the author is a very paranoid man, whit what he says in the sixth stanza, his bad thoughts about losing his job. The last two words of the poem, “you know”, could have several meanings. It could be a way of speaking to the reader, it could be a plea for understanding from the speaker, or it could show aggressiveness to people who are contradicting him.

As a conclusion, I think that the poem was a good, well written one, using repetitions and words that helped portray a good image of the speaker. The effective use of imagery also helped picture the conditions of him, and helps the reader understand about the feelings he has towards doors.