(By Sarah Deeb)

If you want to marry me, here’s what you’ll have to do:
You must learn how to make a perfect chicken-dumpling stew.
And you must sew my holey socks,
And soothe my troubled mind,
And develop the knack for scratching my back,
And keep my shoes spotlessly shined.
And while I rest you must rake up the leaves,
And when it’s hailing and snowing
You must shovel the walk… and be still when I talk,
And—hey—where are you going?

Central Message: If you have too many rules in order for people to start a relationship with you, you’ll always remain single!

The attitude of the poem: The poem is satirical in nature, capturing a man who actually does have a lot of rules, and while he’s explaining them, the girl, representative of most everyone he tries to get a relationship with, walks out as she’s heard enough.

Shift: The shift is in the last line where after he continues to outline his rules, he sees the girl just walking out and says, “And—hey—where are you going?”

My feelings: The poem is very satirical, mentioning how perfectionist the individual is wanting “spotlessly shined” shoes and how marriage for him is the girl doing everything for him, there was no mention of anythings he was interested in doing for her.

Is this a recommended poem? Yes, definitely! Too many of us have too many rules for others and need to learn to have less of them!