Old People’s Home by Auden

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Old People’s Home by Auden The speaker is about to visit an old people's home. On the way, he thinks about the various residents. They suffer from varying degrees of decrepitude. Some can get themselves dressed, read books and play music; they are the "elite". The "average majority" aren't really able to do much more than sit in front of the TV and participate half-heartedly in sing-alongs that they don't really enjoy. The worst of all are so feeble and senile that they are scarcely distinguishable from plants. This poem is not about particular inhabitants of a particular old people's home. It is actually about our own mortality. In the first part of the poem, the inhabitants of the old people's home are largely objectified. They are not described as human beings, so much as categorized by what they can do. However, it hints of humanity peeking through as the author describes the tie that unites them all in the way they have been deserted by their families and stowed away like luggage. There is some suggestion that the "elite" might be unhappy because they are actually conscious of their surroundings. The average majority are said to "endure" TV, which again hints that these people might actually have the ability to experience pleasure. But largely, the first part of the poem is describing the residents, rather than empathizing with them. It is also written in the present tense: describing what the residents are like at the moment. Then the tone changes as the speaker reflects on how these people haven't always been in the old people's home. They have previously been members of a family. Grandchildren loved them, but now they are "stowed out of conscience" like unpopular luggage. At this point in the poem, the residents have become human, but the description is still about them and their feelings. Also, this part of the poem invites us to experience sorrow
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