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Read the full text of Good Bones, a poem by Maggie Smith that explores the challenges and hopes of parenting in a troubled world. The poem compares life to a real estate deal and imagines a better future for the children.
- Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith is the author of Goldenrod (Simon & Schuster,...
- First Fall
Maggie Smith is the author of Goldenrod (Simon & Schuster,...
- Poems of Anxiety and Uncertainty
Good Bones. Maggie Smith In this short Life that only lasts...
- Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith. Maggie Smith is the author of Good Bones (Tupelo Press, 2017), The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison (Tupelo Press, 2015), and Lamp of the Body (Red Hen Press, 2005). Date Published: 2016-11-11. Source URL: https://poets.org/poem/good-bones.
Read the full text of Good Bones, a poem by Maggie Smith that explores the challenges and hopes of parenting in a troubled world. The poem was originally published in Waxwing, Issue 10, in June 2016.
Read the full text of Good Bones, a poem by Maggie Smith that explores the tension between hope and despair in a violent world. Learn how the poet uses metaphors, repetition, and irony to convey her message.
- Summary
- Structure
- Poetic Techniques
- Good Bones Analysis
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The title of the poem refers to a ‘realtor’ talking through a ‘real shithole’ and pointing out that although the house is terrible, it has a good structure and foundation, and therefore can be made into something beautiful. Smith suggests the same applies to our world. Although filled with terrible people, the earth itself is just like the house, i...
‘Good Bones’ is split by Maggie Smith into 17 lines, comprising one continuous stanza. You could call this form of poetry a monologue, with the lack of stanza division making the poem seem more like a speech than anything else. This rambling tone, with Smith referencing and coming back to past ideas, reflects the idea of a speech, with Smith talkin...
One technique that Smith uses throughout the poem is repetition. On one hand, the use of this technique allows Smith to solidify ideas within the mind of the reader, the idea that ‘Life is short’ being the primary example of this. She builds ideas of the world’s negative aspects, and the fact that life is transient into the poem, allowing the reade...
Lines 1-5
The poem begins with a statement that reflects the transience of human life, ‘Life is short’, with Smith instantly focusing the poem on the negative side of life. She reaffirms this statement with ‘though I keep this from my children.’, the final end stops emphasizing ‘children’ and bringing them to the focus of the line. This first line begins in a style that Smith continues throughout the poem, stating something negative about the world, and suggesting she will not tell her children about t...
Lines 6-13
The central idea of the poem arrives between lines five and six, ‘The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative estimate’, pointing to the inherent evil of man. She suggests that if things were as simple as 50% of the world being good, and 50% being bad, that still means that 1/2 the people you meet would be evil, a staggering number. Yet, things aren’t that simple, this being a ‘conservative estimate’, Smith suggesting that it is probable that a might higher percent...
Lines 14-17
Here Smith focuses on the metaphorof a ‘realtor’ selling a house. They walk through a ‘real shithole’, here representative of the world, and talk about ‘good bones’, focusing on how nice the structure of the house is. This is a tactic to say something positive when there really isn’t anything to say. The world is terrible and broken, but hopefully, this can be mixed – maybe her children can help fix it. Smith withdraws into herself for the final two lines. She uses a rhetorical question, the...
Read a detailed analysis of Maggie Smith's poem 'Good Bones', which explores the duality and harshness of the world. Download the poem PDF and learn about its structure, techniques, and themes.
Oct 2, 2017 · Named one of the Five Best Poetry Collections of 2017 by The Washington Post. One of Entropy‘s Best of 2017. Good Bones is a collection of modern poetry that speaks to the world we live in. Maggie Smith contemplates the past and our future, life and death, childhood and motherhood.
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Oct 30, 2022 · Good Bones. by Maggie Smith. Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine. in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways. I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least. fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative.
