Analyzing the poem,"My Days Are Numbered"

 Hello! Today, I would like to present you this poem, "My Days Are Numbered" by Rick Moranis. I made a presentation of this poem with my partner. We chose this since this was easy to read.

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This is the poem we analyzed

My Days Are Numbered

By Rick Moranis

The average American home now has more television sets than people ... according to Nielsen Media Research. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people, the researchers said.

— The Associated Press, Sept. 21.

I HAVE two kids. Both are away at college.

I have five television sets. (I like to think of them as a set of five televisions.) I have two DVR boxes, three DVD players, two VHS machines and four stereos.

I have nineteen remote controls, mostly in one drawer.

I have three computers, four printers and two non-working faxes.

I have three phone lines, three cell phones and two answering machines.

I have no messages.

I have forty-six cookbooks.

I have sixty-eight takeout menus from four restaurants.

I have one hundred and sixteen soy sauce packets.

I have three hundred and eighty-two dishes, bowls, cups, saucers, mugs and glasses.

I eat over the sink.

I have five sinks, two with a view.

I try to keep a positive view.

I have two refrigerators.

It’s very hard to count ice cubes.

I have thirty-nine pairs of golf, tennis, squash, running, walking, hiking, casual and formal shoes, ice skates and rollerblades.

I’m wearing slippers.

I have forty-one 37-cent stamps.

I have no 2-cent stamps.

I read three dailies, four weeklies, five monthlies and no annual reports.

I have five hundred and six CD, cassette, vinyl and eight-track recordings.

I listen to the same radio station all day.

I have twenty-six sets of linen for four regular, three foldout and two inflatable beds.

I don’t like having houseguests.

I have one hundred and eighty-four thousand frequent flier miles on six airlines, three of which no longer exist.

I have “101 Dalmatians” on tape.

I have fourteen digital clocks flashing relatively similar times.

I have twenty-two minutes to listen to the news.

I have nine armchairs from which I can be critical.

I have a laundry list of things that need cleaning.

I have lost more than one thousand golf balls.

I am missing thirty-seven umbrellas.

I have over four hundred yards of dental floss.

I have a lot of time on my hands.

I have two kids coming home for Thanksgiving.

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About Rick Moranis

・Born in Toronto, Ontario, to a Jewish family

・radio disc jockey in the mid-1970s

・performed on CBC-TV and acted some films

・married Ann Belsky in 1986 and had two children

・Belsky died of cancer in 1991

・took a break from working to raise his children

・released an album in 2005 and in 2013

These are the informations on Rick Moranis

Next is the analysis of the poem.

This poem is fulled with irony. The first one is, "I have three phone lines, three cell phones and two answering machines." and "I have no messages." These two lines are in contrast. From these two lines, you could imagine that there were family in this house but it is emphasized that the character in this poem is very lonely from the second line.

Next lines are,"I have three hundred and eighty-two dishes, bowls, saucers, mugs and glasses."and, "I eat over the sink." Also from these two lines, like in the previous examples, it is telling readers that this main character is now all alone at his house. There used to be family here since it mentions that there are many utensils and dishes, but now this character lives alone and does not care where to eat and what to eat, which is menitoned in the second line.

There are more irony, like "I have thiry-nine pairs of golf, tennis, squash..." and "I'm wearing slippers". Also,"I have five hundred and six CD cassete..." and "I listen to the same radio station all day." are also in contrast. They mean mostly the same, that the character of this poem is feeling very lonely

Around the last three lines of this poem, it mentions that this person has lost more than one thousand golf balls. From this it is likely that this person is a man, since men usually play golf more than women. He has two kids, who are away at college. In this poem, he never mentions about his wife, which means she has passed away or got divorced. But maybe some of you have noticed that Rick Moranis himself have lost his wife. Which means that it is possible that the main character himself is the author of this poem. So from these information the main character is a man and he has two children who are away at college and his wife is likely to have passed away.

From these analysis, it wants to tell us that stuff cannot fill up loneliness, and it would rather torment you from silence of the stuff. We humans cannot live alone, and connection with people are the most important matter to live through life.

If you have noticed more on this poem, please comment from below. Thank you for reading!