Subjective and Objective Importance

A major theme of “This Is Just To Say” is the contrast in seriousness between the events of the poem and the way they are presented. Thinking about the poem objectively, none of it seems that serious. An unnamed speaker has eaten some plums which another unnamed person might have claimed. The poem’s central object, the plums, are replaceable and inexpensive, and the second person’s possession of them is tenuous, probable rather than certain. The poem’s triviality is in some ways accentuated by its syntactical style. The short lines and uncomplicated diction create a feeling of carelessness, as if the poem were hastily written somewhere, more note than literary product. Evaluated without the line breaks the poem is roughly divisible into two ideas, the first encompassed by the two stanzas and the second by the third (this breakdown is also...