The Analysis of '' HOW ARE WE TODAY ? '' for 
                                                       ''Dummies ''

    Prepared by İnci Alpay 

How Are We Today is a poem written by Carol Ann Duffy .

In this poem , the poet ; Carol Ann Duffy is telling  about  the politics and the media without using those two words and using a bunch of  other  words which are choosen on purpose ; along with the literary devices.   She manages to do   this by telling about the daily life , with a language that belongs to the daily life.

    Don't you dance like this man does in the seventh picture ;  in your daily life ? 

The language that we talk includes  exclamation words  like : ''Ahh'', '' Ugh'' or  ''Puff ''. The first thing that makes the language of this poem the language of daily life is the use of word choices.
''ugh'' is one of the words that we use in daily life annnd guess what ?
ıt takes place in the poem too. (line  6, second stanza. )


The second thing that makes  the poem seem like it is just talking about daily life and how complex it is is that the things that she thinks of in each stanza . In the first stanza its the weather , in the second one its flowers and in the third stanza its the doctor.
                   The things that she is talking about sounds like they are all everyday topics.

which one do you think the poet would choose ?
for wedding oooor for making a metaphor ?

C'amooon who do you think this doctor has on his mind ?
guess what ; the poet says the answer in line 9, third stanza. 

 Yeaah , don't you think that weather is an everyday topic ? 

Along with the topics and the word choices the shape of the poem matches the content ; or wait; should I say the fake content which is a mask of the real one ? 

The poem has 4 stanzas each having 4 lines. Don't you think that it is just  as regular  as your life ? 

To mention a little bit more about the   daily life ; Duffy said that the people on the radio are  turning  a sunny day  into a rainy one  in the  first stanza  ; the ''real '' flowers die  and the plastic ones are disgusting in the second stanza  aannnnd  the doctor in the third  stanza is actually able to hear everything with his ''stethoscope '' ; along with that , in the last  stanza she mentioned about a ''Winston'' which   is on papers for swallowing his  own eye.  Guess which Winston is Duffy telling about ?

Did you said ''Winston Churchill '' ?

You are god damn right.

 Let's go a little bit deeper to the real message that the poet wanted to give to the readers.

 In the first stanza she says:

 ''The little people on the radio are picking on me again. It is sunny but they are going to make it rain.''

What she really means is that ; 

 The ''little '' people on the radio are manupulating the reality ; they are even turning  a sunny day  into a rainy one.  In addition to the hidden meaning under  these lines there is also the tone which is hidden behind a fake one. She describes the people  as little however she knows that they are big people ; if they are able to manupulate. So she is actually being sarcastic however when you first look at  it  ; it does not  look sarcastic but more like  insulting. Yeah  ,  people. Duffy did it again. 

In the second stanza we see that she is talking about flowers , about the plastic ones and the real ones. She also says that she loves the real ones and she  almost digusts the plastic ones. Of course ; there is metaphore. The real flowers which ''die '' are actually the ones which tell the truth . ''The flowers are plastic. There is all dust on the petals. I go Ugh. '' She  mentions about   the dust which are on the plastic , artificial flowers , they are the lies but they are the ones that saves them from dyşng , they last for so long that they even have dust on themselves. However the real ones die , she says and she finds it  comforting. What she means is  ; dying is better than surviving with the help of lies ; which are disgusting UGHH !! 

 When we move to the hird stanza we  meet a doctor. Omg !! Another everyday topic. However don't you think that this doctor is little bit magical or what ? 

''He hears me with his stethoscope , so it is no use sneaking home at five o'clock to his  nice house because I am in his ear  going Breathe , Breathe. '' 

 The  magician , oh sorry , the doctor  is almost able to hear the sneaky escape of a girl at five o 'clock so the girl decides that ; escaping is nonsense. Sounds like Duffy , is not it ? 

 There we have to admit the existence of another metaphore. The doctor is there ,with his stethoscope , listening and hearing everything. Duffy  wants to escape to the house of  the doctor but she decides that it is  useless because she knows that the doctor is aware of everything. In here the doctor is someone wo knows  the truths and whose thoughts are not manupulated yet by the media but  the person is not able to do anything. That' s why ironicly , it  is Duffy who says '' Breathe , Breathe . ''

 There comes the last stanza. The beautiful  treasure of Duffy. We can say that for the first time she uses a  word which signs  her secret message a liiiittle bit more openly.  ''Winston.''

 In this stanza  we see that  Duffy is saying   '' I might take my eye out and swallow it to bring ssome attention to myself. '' The word that she used is might and the sentence is not a short , definite sentence, instead it is a long and mighty sentence. The following sentence is : '' Winston did. '' This sentence is very short and very definite . Another sentence like this one follows : '' His name was in the paper. ''  In the first sentence there is again a metaphor. 

Guys ; can this be the favorite literary device of Duffy ?  Okay wait . We were analyzing the  poem not the poet. 

The eye is the organ that lets  us see aound and  according to what we see , we decide. The eye of someone  is actually the perception of someone.  Swallowing the eye is  something that will damage the eye allthough it will definetly take attention. While the poet was just thinking about doing this ; in order to get the attention and in order to appeal to everybody that gave their attention to her ; WINSTON DID. 

The last sentence  is that  ''I make noises to annoy them and then I go BASTARDS.''

After all that hiding and the secretly meaning something at the end ; we see that  Carol Ann Duffy  bursts with anger and the sign of this anger was given beforehand actually ; if even she was thinking about damaging her eye , losing her perception   for the attention ; she should have been really mad at all this. 

 I know you know what I mean when I say '' All This'' however because in the title it syas for dummies , I will explain. 

Carol Ann Duffy changed the mistreious  tone  and stopped implying because she was really angry at the manupulation of the media  and  also to the politicians which  are manupulating the public just like media does. 

This can be Carol Ann Duffy saying '' I  make noises to annoy them and  then  I go BASTARDS ''


Now , since we are finished with the misterious and hidden meanings in the poem we can move on the poetic devices that  are used in this poem and their purpose. 

  

----The shape of the poem seems to be regular since it has 4 stanzas and 4 lines each however   the ryhme sheme is extermely irregular. Which shows that ; Duffy faked us even about the shape . 

 ----Alliteration was used in the  forth line with the continuing  ''O'' sounds  after the word '' go ''. 

Imagary was also used in this poem  ; moreover it is almost everywhere. 

  Some examples are given below : 

  -The  third and forth line of the  first stanza : '' I do not...skin on.''

  -The first and second lines of  the second stanza : ''The flowers ... on the petals. ''

 The imagary provides an area in which the poet can play with the words  and  can be metaphorical and not direct , along with that they appeal to the senses of the reader . 

 ---- There is also connatiation  in line  8 : ''I know them by name, listen. Rose, Tulip,Lily.''

 allthough they are the names that are given to give an identity to the '' real flowers '' which are the mortal and honest people , they also managed to be  one of the most  romantic objects in the poem , because  all those names of flowers recalls romanticism .  This adds to the metaphor   about the plastic and real  flowers. 

Note : The targeted audiences of this post  are the innocent dummies which want to know about poetry analysis. You are unlucky dudes ; you should have never started with Duffy.