Men Are

The poem “Men Are” was written by The Joeys, an alternative comedy theatre group. From the title the reader understands the poem is about men and how men are. The use of the capital letters underlines that the reader is going to read about The “real, standard” Men and how they really Are: what makes them real Men and distinguish them from women.

The text is made up of fifty-eight short lines. Most of them start with the words “men (are)”, followed by an adjective or a short sentence that describes them.
The extract I am going to analyse goes from the first to the seventh line. The punctuation is almost inexistent: there is only a full stop and three commas used to dived short periods.

The poem describes some of the characteristic features of men.
The extract starts with the repetition of the words “men are” three times. This first line aims to give a rhythm to reading and underline the topic of the poem.
The traits that are most highlighted by adjectives are men’s toughness and strength: from the second to the fourth line, men are described by a succession of strong adjectives that creates an ascending climax (strong-tough-surly-rough). This vision of men is remarked by the adjective brave and the idea of fearlessness in the seventh line.
In the fifth and sixth line are reported two habits of men: having mates and drinking beer. Men seem to be described like animals that live and act in herd and are brave to show their strength.

The poem has a easygoing air and cheerful, strong rhythm. It is created by the anaphorical use of “men” and the succession of stresses that always fall on the last word of the line with the same strength. This way the last word of every line (that is the peak of the sentence) is strongly underlined.