Some Days

The poem proper opens with the title: “Some days I put the people in their places at the table” (Line 1). “Some days” (Line 1) indicates that the speaker of the poem does not do this every day which is important to the context of the poem in which the speaker eventually describes as “other days” (Line 9). The “I” (Line 1) indicates the speaker is speaking about themselves in the first person. The speaker “puts the people in their places” (Line 1), which means they are in charge and have the power to maneuver “the people” (Line 1). While the physical control the speaker has over “the people” (Line 1) indicates the people are actually dolls, the speaker refers to them as “people” (Line 1) instead of dolls. Treating them as dolls but referring to them as “people” (Line 1) sets up the metaphor for the entire poem in which people are to the world around them as dolls are to people. The speaker “places” (Line 1) the people “at the table” (Line 1). “The table” (Line 1) is symbolic as most of life’s meetings happen around a table. Here, “the people” (Line 1) are “fix[ed]” (Line 4) and inanimate, rather than lively or conversing.

The speaker “bend[s] their legs at the knees, / if they come with that feature” (Lines 2-3). This imagery furthers the concept of the people as inanimate dolls rather than actual “people” (Line 1) and sets an uncanny mood to the poem as the speaker exerts control over “the people[‘s]” (Line 1) bodies and movement. The speaker “fix[es] them into the tiny wooden chairs” (Line 4). Rather than put “the people” (Line 1) into the “chairs” (Line 4), the speaker “fix[es]” (Line 4) them. The word “fix” (Line 4) conveys two meanings, conjuring the stillness and lifelessness of a “fixed” state, as well as suggesting that “put[ting] the people” (Line 1) in their “chairs” (Line 4) somehow makes them better than they were, repaired, “fix[ed]” (Line 4).

In the second stanza the speaker continues: “All afternoon they face one another, / the man in the brown suit, / the woman in the blue dress” (Lines 5-7). The image of a “man in [a] brown suit” (Line 6) and a “woman in [a] blue dress” (Line 7) simply “fac[ing] one another” (Line 5) for an entire “afternoon” (Line 5) further highlights the blurred line between person and doll. The doll-people’s clothing here hints at a more formal setting—perhaps a professional setting—where suits and dresses would be the preferred attire.

The description of “the people” (Line 1) and the specifics of what they are wearing perpetuates the notion that the dolls are akin to humans. That they are “perfectly motionless” (Line 8) in “tiny wooden chairs” (Line 4) “at the table” (Line 1) furthers the depiction as dolls rather than real people. The varied characterization of the scene as containing “people” (Line 1) being still like dolls blurs the line between them and the speaker and further, between them and the reader. The speaker describes them as “perfectly behaved” (Line 8), which continues to distort the scene. “[T]he people” (Line 1) are inanimate dolls, yet “behaved” (Line 8) is a human characteristic that dolls made of “plastic” (Line 20) cannot possess. Additionally, the dolls are described as “perfectly behaved” (Line 8) because they are “perfectly motionless” (Line 8) and not expressing nor doing anything. Rather than portrayed as dull or lifeless, the speaker characterizes their “motionless[ness]” (Line 8) as indication that the dolls are conducting themselves in a well-mannered way.

In the third stanza the narrative shifts: “But other days, I am the one / who is lifted up by the ribs, / then lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse / to sit with the others at the long table” (Lines 9-12). The speaker switches roles and is no longer the controller of the scene; they are instead controlled by some unknown puppet master. In contrast to the first line of the poem where “[s]ome days” (Line 1) the speaker puts “people […] at the table” (Line 1), “other days” (Line 9) the speaker is one of the lifeless dolls. The image of the speaker “lifted up by the ribs, / then lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse” (Lines 10-11) evokes a sense of powerlessness. The speaker, who has thus far presented as being in charge, is no different from the dolls they have described. There is no explicit reason as to why “some days” (Line 1) the speaker is the controller, and why “other days” (Line 9) he is controlled by someone or something else. However, the reader can surmise that what the speaker describes is indicative of the human condition: Sometimes, people exert control over their own circumstances, while other times, events occur which are beyond their control.

The speaker is humbled to having to “sit with the others” (Line 12) just as people experience losing the control they thought they possessed. “Sit with the others” (Line 12) indicates that no one is alone in feeling out of control; everyone feels this way during various points of life.

The speaker moves to an aside when he says, “Very funny” (Line 13) and asks:

but how would you like it

if you never knew from one day to the next

if you were going to spend it

striding around like a vivid god,

your shoulders in the clouds,

or sitting down there amidst the wallpaper,

staring straight ahead with your little plastic face?” (Line 14-20)

In the final portion of the poem, the speaker moves from the first-person perspective of the first stanzas, to a second-person perspective with the use of “you” (Line 14, 15). This is a more direct address of the audience reading the poem. Just like the speaker, the audience “never [knows] from one day to the next” (Line 15) whether they will be in control of their life “like a vivid god” (Line 17) or completely at the mercy of powers-that-be like a doll with a “little plastic face” (Line 20). The final lines of the poem are nuanced because the reader—presumably a member of the same unpredictable world with the greater forces of society, culture, government and otherwise exerting control over them—shares the speaker’s disdain of feeling like a plaything. The stark contrast between the speaker “striding around like a vivid god […] shoulders in the clouds” (Line 17-18) and “sitting […] amidst the wallpaper, / staring straight ahead” (Lines 19-20) highlights the polarity of life. One day, people are under the illusion they have total control and the next day, they must confront the reality of this being false and “plastic” (Line 20) like living in a “dollhouse” (Line 11).