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Maggie Smith's poem "Good Bones" explores the tension between the beauty and the horror of life and the world. She compares the world to a real estate that needs renovation and tries to sell it to her children.
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A poem by Maggie Smith that explores the tension between life's beauty and terror, and the responsibility of parents to sell the world to their children. The poem uses the metaphor of real estate and the image of a voting machine to convey its 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...
A poem by Maggie Smith that explores the idea that the world is not necessarily a morally good place, but has 'good bones' that can be made beautiful. The poem is a monologue to her children, using repetition, caesura, and metaphor to convey her message.
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A poem by Maggie Smith that explores the tension between the beauty and the horror of the world, and the responsibility of parents to sell the world to their children. Read the poem, watch a video of the poet reading it, and learn about its themes and sources.
Learn about the meaning and structure of 'Good Bones', a popular poem by American poet Maggie Smith. The poem reflects on the negative aspects of life and how the speaker tries to shield her children from them.
Oct 2, 2017 · Maggie Smith's third poetry collection, Good Bones, explores the past, present and future of the world through lyric language and vivid imagery. The title poem, inspired by her own children, is a viral sensation that celebrates the light and the love of the world.
Oct 6, 2020 · How did Maggie Smith, author of the popular poem "Good Bones", become a literary self-help guru? Read her profile and interview in Slate, where she talks about her life, her new book, and her fears.
