Some Days

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1998

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Society

In this poem an unknown force controls the speaker. Although the speaker never explicitly names what “lift[s them] up by the ribs / then lower[s them] into the dining room of a dollhouse” (Lines 10-11), there are greater forces at play. The reader can surmise that society at large is the unseen force causing the speaker to go from feeling as “a vivid god” (Line 17) to “sitting down there amidst the wallpaper” (Line 19). The sheer force and control the outside world has on humans is highlighted when the speaker explains that he “never [knows] from one day to the next” (Line 15) if he will be the one in control or the one controlled.

The command that this unseen force has over the speaker is so powerful that the speaker who was once the puppeteer to the dolls in the “dollhouse” (Line 11), now “sit[s] down there amidst the wallpaper, / staring straight ahead with [their] little plastic face” (Lines 19-20). Although the speaker was in total control of the dolls in the first stanza, they were never completely in control. Utter control is an illusion that can be taken away at any moment. As the speaker “sit[s] down there” (Line 19), he is within the grasp of the power that “lifted [him] by the ribs” (Line 10), and is now the same as the dolls he set “at the table” (Line 1) in the first stanza of the poem. Accordingly, societal and cultural constraints and demands loom without escape, taking primacy over individual free will.

Perfection

As the speaker explores the sheer power the outside world has over him as if he were a doll in a “dollhouse” (Line 11), he implicitly makes the argument that part of this control society is perfection. This is shown through the portrayal of the bodies in the poem: Both of the “people” (Line 1) the speaker controls are “perfectly motionless, perfectly behaved” (Line 8) and the speaker ends the poem “staring straight ahead with [their] little plastic face” (Line 20). The repeated use of the word “perfectly” (Line 8) to describe the “people” (Line 1) the speaker is controlling conjures images of the quintessential family unit. The “people” (Line 1) are not necessarily “perfectly behaved” (Line 8), but are described as such because they are not doing anything. The implication is that this is what the unseen greater powers in this world actually want—“people” (Line 1) who will “[behave]” (Line 8) and follow the rules of society as if they are “plastic” (Line 20) rather than messy, unique, free-thinkers.

Control

This poem begins with the speaker controlling “people” (Line 1) like dolls in “a dollhouse” (Line 11) and ends with the speaker being controlled. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker is so in control over the “people” (Line 1) that they even control the slightest of movements: “bend[ing] their legs at the knees” (Line 2) and then “fix[ing] them into […] tiny wooden chairs” (Line 4). The speaker’s authority is such that they decide how or if the “people[‘s]” (Line 1) “knees” (Line 2) are “ben[t]” (Line 2), and then sits them down in “chairs” (Line 4). When the perspective shifts, this same control is exerted over the speaker.

The speaker, first characterized as the human controlling dolls in a “dollhouse” (Line 11), is suddenly “lifted by the ribs, / then lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse” (Lines 10-11). The speaker, no longer in control of “the people” (Line 1) becomes one of them as their body is manipulated like a doll. An unseen, force “lower[s]” (Line 11) the speaker “into the dining room of a dollhouse” (Line 11). The word “lowered” (Line 11) portrays this force as above the speaker—as larger and more powerful. Since the speaker exerts the same control at the beginning of the poem, it can be assumed that another person is controlling the speaker. However, it is unclear as to who is in control and why suddenly the speaker no longer is.

The arbitrary nature of the switch in power signals that, outside of whoever is currently controlling “the people” (Line 1) inside of this “dollhouse” (Line 11), there is something intangible at play. This indicates, on a larger scale, that the speaker, regardless of their role “from one day to the next” (Line 15) is powerless against the collective of societal forces. As the overarching will of society prevails, humans in general are all dolls in a “dollhouse” (Line 11) allowed to pretend they are “vivid god[s]” (Line 17) when the true governing force allows.

The entire poem centers on the concept of free will: Do humans actually have free will? What does free will entail? There are times when people have control over their circumstances, and other times when they do not. Collins’s poem considers each idea.