The connotation of the word is learned from the context of the work or from understanding of the word as a symbol in literature, which we'll learn more about next month.
We've practiced on the word children. Below is a list of other words that are significant in the poem. Try using some of the information above and identify the significance on your own!
- here
- we
- chambered
- rot
- circles
- clock
- sleeping
- unmarked
- trash dumps
- avoid
Title
The final thing I want to look at regarding word choice and significance is the title of the poem. The title, "Not Your Problem," give insight into the meaning of the poem.
Let's look at the word problem first. By using this word, Ehrhart is telling us that there is a problem; something is wrong. Somebody needs to fix something. As we read the poem, we find that, indeed, there is a problem. Something is very wrong with where the narrator is, his here.
The previous two words, not and your explain whose problem this is. We are told that it is not your problem; it is not the reader's problem. So whose is it? Again, as we read the poem, the only possible person that could own the problem is the narrator. Remember the word here? The narrator is the only one that can describe his location as here. Your location, you the reader, is described with there. Therefore, the problem is not yours, not the reader's. It is the narrator's problem.
Follow me?
The entire poem, according to the title, is depicting that a problem is going on at the narrator's location (not yours), and, because it is the narrator's problem, the narrator is responsible for fixing it. It is not your problem; it is the narrator's.
I hope that you have found this discussion useful. Join me next month when we focus on some of the images found in W.D. Ehrhart's "Not Your Problem."
The parts of this poem have been reprinted with the permission of W.D. Ehrhart. Please visit his website for more information about Ehrhart and his writing.
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