Telephone Poles by John Updike

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Question: What is meant by the last two lines, “These giants are more constant than evergreens, by being never green” John Updike, poet of Telephone Poles, has used a comparison by comparing the telephone poles (the giants) to evergreens, something that lasts forever, staying fresh and alive. The first line of this comparison: “These giants are more constant than evergreens,” indicates that “these giants”, (referred to in the first stanza as the telephone poles being mythological and fading into everyday life, no longer acknowledged or appreciated), are more common and frequently found than an evergreen – a tree that lives for a long period of time, staying fresh. He has used this first line to set the understanding for the next line in the comparison. This line also reminds us of how significant and forgotten telephone poles are. In the second line, the poet has said that the telephone poles are more “constant than evergreens by never being green”. This pun describes that the telephone poles are more common and frequent than a tree that lives forever (an evergreen), because the telephone poles are not green. The pun also explains that the telephone poles are dead trees and are therefore not green anymore. John Updike has used this pun/ comparison to telephone poles because it gets the reader thinking and it also shows the level of creativity that the poet has. It also reminds us of how often we see telephone poles but they are no longer acknowledged or

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