A Consumer's Report - Peter Porter

896 Words4 Pages
In this poem, Porter compares life to a product, this is a metaphor. Likewise this “product” “life” is being consumed by people. “the product I tested is life.”, Porter writes this as if life is a real product, as if it can bought off just like that. As if, to him life has no value anymore. Porter also writes about how money and energy are being used, also explains how “consumers” live in a materialistic world.
Although written in the early years, this poem seems to be related today’s issue. Materialistic minds that are crawling everywhere. “I had it as gift” refers to life; he had no choice but to accept it. “I didn’t feel much while using It.”, it’s as if life to him wasn’t important because he didn’t feel the thrill and joy of using this “product” called life. This is also where “beneath the fun there is a truly and disturbingly set of ideals” starts. He says he “had it as a gift”, a gift is something you treasure, something that brings you happiness. But in his case his “gift” has a “disturbingly set of ideals.” It seems to him that this “gift” is not worth trying. “in fact I think I’d have liked to be more excited.” Here he says he would’ve wanted to be more excited to this “product” of his but it seems that the world he’s living in stops him from being “excited”. “It seemed gentle on the hands but left an embarrassing deposit behind.” This “product” might seem to be a good one but being over “excited” can lead to an embarrassment and so he thinks.
Then he jumps to “It was not economical”, talking about energy or money. “and I have used much more than I thought” he feels a
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