Assignment 5

Jenny Joseph: “Warning” (pp. 394-95)

The enormous popularity of this poem can be gauged by the number of Web sites that reprint it. One site bills it as “the national favourite post war poem” (the nation is England, the war is World War II). It has inspired a Red Hat society (www.redhatsociety.org), which came into being “as a result of few women deciding to greet middle age with verve, humor, and elan. We believe silliness is the comic relief of life, and, since we are all in it together, we might as well join red-gloved hands and go for the gusto together. Underneath the frivolity, we share a bond of affection, forged by common life experiences and genuine enthusiasm for wherever life takes us next.”

We can understand the poem’s popular appeal. It expresses the yearning for rebellion from the constraints of polite society while comfortably putting off the rebellion to the vague future. The contemplated acts are small indeed, daring in a genteel sort of way and certainly not likely to cause much of a stir. But perhaps this is unfair since, as the final three lines make clear, the acts the speaker contemplates will shock and surprise only “the people who know me.”