16 pages • 32 minutes read
Billy CollinsSome Days
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Table
In the first line of the poem, the speaker “put[s] people in their places at the table” (Line 1). In American society, tables are seen as anchors and as a symbol for meetings—whether formal or informal, professional, or familial, most people gather at a table at some point in their day. Tables are where decisions are made, days are discussed, and a lot of roles within society are played out. People eat dinner with family around a table where they embody their role within the family unit; often, meetings are held at tables where people hold professional roles. The speaker literally “puts people in their places” (Line 1) by “fix[ing] them into […] wooden chairs” (Line 4). The speaker both literally and figuratively decides where each person belongs. People are figuratively put into place—where they belong in relation to other people and within society. When the speaker is the one being controlled, they are “lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse / to sit with the others at the long table” (Lines 11-12). The speaker is put “at the long table” (Line 12) “with the others” (Line 12) because they are one of the others—a member of a society. The speaker’s illusion of power is broken, and they symbolically take their “[place] at the table” (Line 1) alongside all the other “people” (Line 1) being controlled.
Dollhouse
The “dollhouse” (Line 11) symbolizes the microcosm of human life. The speaker refers to a literal “dollhouse” (Line 11) representing knowledge that having “control” over life is an illusion that can be broken. When outside forces dictated by society affect the circumstances of the speaker’s life, they suddenly find themself in “the dining room of a dollhouse” (Line 11). “The dining room” (Line 11) is representative of an everyday, ordinary setting while the “dollhouse” represents a life the speaker has not chosen. They are enclosed, housed, trapped by the “dollhouse” (Line 11). They now have just as much control over life as the “people” (Line 1) did in the beginning of the poem. The “dollhouse” (Line 11) itself does not actually exert any control over the speaker, but instead represents the trapped nature of living in a contrived society where people are manipulated and controlled by sources outside of themselves.
The Mundane
The mundane is repeatedly portrayed throughout this poem. The “people” (Line 1) at the beginning of the poem are “fix[ed] into […] tiny wooden chairs” (Line 4) and “they face one another, / the man in the brown suit, / the woman in the blue dress” (Lines 5-7). The images of the “wooden chairs” (Line 4), the scene of these two “people” (Line 1) “fac[ing] one another” (Line 5) for the entirety of an “afternoon” (Line 5) while dressed in unremarkable clothing portrays everything as drab—devoid of excitement or vitality.
The scene at the beginning of the poem is almost completely motionless as the only movement is the speaker “bend[ing] their legs at the knees” (Line 2). Once the speaker enters the “dollhouse” (Line 11), minutiae and routine dominate the scene as they “sit […] amidst the wallpaper, / staring straight ahead” (Lines 19-20). This is in stark contrast to the speaker as the “vivid god” (Line 17) controlling the other “people” (Line 1) who sit at the table. Rather than having their “shoulder in the clouds” (Line 18), the speaker is resigned, against their will, to the motionless scene from the beginning of the poem. They now “sit” (Line 19), “perfectly motionless, perfectly behaved” (Line 8)—“perfectly” (Line 8) lifeless and expressionless “with [their] little plastic face” (Line 20). The description of the speaker’s “face” (Line 20) as “little” and “plastic” (Line 20) is the epitome of what the modern world considers to proper: completely disconnected from nature and what is inherent in this world. Instead, “plastic” (Line 20) is reminiscent of chemicals and is used to describe something as fake rather than genuine or authentic.
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By Billy Collins
