Poem found here: "There is Absolutely Nothing Lonelier" by Matthew Rohrer
The poem is a hyperbolic personification of loneliness. The question is why? Why go to his extent to explain loneliness. To me, I found the poem entertaining and funny because of the personification.
"There is absolutely nothing lonelier / than the little Mars rover / never shutting down [...]" My initial response to the first three lines was "hyperbole" and "humor?" The hyperbole is apparent with the loneliness applying to an inanimate object; however, it's the description, and location that defines the loneliness -- Mars and never shutting down, "digging up / rocks, so far away from Bond street / in a light rain."
The short lines adds a sense of repetition -- "digging" for something that is not there. I'm not sure what "Bond street" means, but, to me, it's a reference for being "down to earth" without being so apparent.
"I wonder / if he makes little beeps?" The entering of the speaker in this poem brings a sense of commentary -- an observer standpoint on what loneliness and the mars rover means; or rather, the poem goes away from description and adds a rhetorical question about sound or rather a connection through communication that isn't responded to, "If so / he is lonelier still."
Also note that the rover is labeled as a "he" as in, "he coughs," which makes the rover human. Too human? I feel the speaker wants me to forget about the rover as the rover and imagine someone or myself in the position of being on mars digging by himself ("The Martian?")
"A shiny / thing in the sand turns out to be his." This is, I think, the second concrete image in the poem (bond street in light rain being the first). The first adding a sense of separation. The second, an acknowledgement only to the self.
The poem is a hyperbolic personification of loneliness. The question is why? Why go to his extent to explain loneliness. To me, I found the poem entertaining and funny because of the personification.
"There is absolutely nothing lonelier / than the little Mars rover / never shutting down [...]" My initial response to the first three lines was "hyperbole" and "humor?" The hyperbole is apparent with the loneliness applying to an inanimate object; however, it's the description, and location that defines the loneliness -- Mars and never shutting down, "digging up / rocks, so far away from Bond street / in a light rain."
The short lines adds a sense of repetition -- "digging" for something that is not there. I'm not sure what "Bond street" means, but, to me, it's a reference for being "down to earth" without being so apparent.
"I wonder / if he makes little beeps?" The entering of the speaker in this poem brings a sense of commentary -- an observer standpoint on what loneliness and the mars rover means; or rather, the poem goes away from description and adds a rhetorical question about sound or rather a connection through communication that isn't responded to, "If so / he is lonelier still."
Also note that the rover is labeled as a "he" as in, "he coughs," which makes the rover human. Too human? I feel the speaker wants me to forget about the rover as the rover and imagine someone or myself in the position of being on mars digging by himself ("The Martian?")
"A shiny / thing in the sand turns out to be his." This is, I think, the second concrete image in the poem (bond street in light rain being the first). The first adding a sense of separation. The second, an acknowledgement only to the self.
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