Bed Spacer Poem Analysis

The first stanza of the poem introduces the setting of the poem as well as the addressee, the lady bed spacer. The first 2 lines of the poem present a paradoxical statement which shows the size of the apartment. “To stretch out arms and legs in your bed set in your narrow constant corner” is not only paradoxical in the sense that she is stretching out in a narrow and cramp area, but this also establishes the tension between the lady bed spacer and the apartment. Aside from this, the image of the arms and legs is also used as a metonym for the lady bed spacer, yet through the use of metonymy the she is objectified and reduced her entire being into just a body. Meanwhile the third line of the stanza presents the reader with an image of the physical

The first line of the stanza brings us back to the bed spacer stretching in the tight apartment; while this is done for comfort, we see that the warning of the persona holds true. “Too many carnal eyes.” This strengthens the idea that the people in the apartment might take it differently. The next four lines emphasize the way she should act in the apartment. The persona cautions her to “tread” instead of simply walking, to be wary of the “tricky latch” and walk like a “trespasser”. These lines also explain the elevated tension between the lady and the apartment now on the sexual level; she cannot be herself or even allow herself the freedom to be comfortable in her own skin not only because of the lack of space, but also for fear of being objectified and sexualized by the other tenants. The use of figures of speech such as simile and metonymy is also evident in these lines. The persona likened the steps that the persona to a trespasser, on one level, this is to emphasize the measures that she must take as she stays in the apartment; but on the other hand, this could also signify that she remains an outsider in spite of living there, that she truly does not belong in the apartment. The use of metonymy in these lines: “lazy Susan” for the dining room, the “toilet” in place of the comfort room was effective because it emphasized the rooms and its purpose without having to explain them thoroughly. Aside from

The first line in the stanza: “Chaos, other people. You think of your own” the bed spacer thinks of her own things as compared to the other tenants whose things are causing chaos: scattered everywhere, piling up in the stairs, “boxes of junk nobody wants to burn.” as compared to hers as mentioned in the second line: “ “Things” kept in a suitcase beneath your bed”. The word highlighted in this line is the word “things” which is enclosed in quotation marks, quotation marks suggests that the word is being used in a special way that means something different from the literal meaning. The “things” in the line may imply that the things are not even totally all her property, as will be mentioned later on, there will be things that the tenants share among themselves. The enjambment in these 2 lines allow another reading of “you think of your own” to take place; not only does she think of her own things, but this line also indicates that she may be thinking about herself, and her place in the apartment. Thus the third and fourth line is a possible reason for the lady bed spacer keeping her things in a suitcase under her bed. Her things based on the poem are “as moveable as the knockabouts you share with the others renting the same elbow room”, these lines indicate the temporariness of her stay in the