In this poem, John Betjeman adopts the persona of the "young executive" and describes his business and personal life, using the idiom and language which the man would himself use. Betjeman is careful to build up a real sense of the place and situation in which to stage this monologue, allowing the reader gradually to build up a picture in his/her mind from the various clues which are inserted into the text. In this respect, one is reminded of Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" where the Duke of Ferrara narrates his own story about his previous wife. Here, the young executive is made to perform a similar task as Ferrara, since both characters unwittingly condemn themselves out of their own mouths. Betjeman's purpose in writing the poem is to satirise and provide a critique of aspects of modern life.

Betjeman presents one side of...