On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance” is a 23-line poem that does not rhyme or have a specific meter. There are no consistent beats per line. However, Nezhukumatathil does use uniform line length throughout the poem and organizes the poem into 11 couplets with a singular final line, giving the poem a definitive appearance. The poem is driven by the narrative of a student being ostracized at school, starting with the teacher’s mispronunciation of her name. However, Nezhukumatathil uses the second-person, or “you” perspective, to force the reader to place themselves in the role of the main character. She also uses metaphors and similes—particular of sea creatures—to create correlations that help the reader navigate the speaker’s imaginative responses to the harsh world of the classroom. Nezhukumatathil deliberately juxtaposes the speaker’s descriptions about the actual situation of the classroom with imaginings to heighten the emotional responses the speaker negotiates.

Second-Person Point of View

The use of the second person, or “you” narration, is highly effective for encouraging readers to engage with “On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance.” Despite whatever biases or privileges the reader might possess, the use of the “you” perspective forces the reader to align with the speaker. The “you” is the person whom the poem happens to, rather than a “me” or “she.” While the “you” might serve as the persona of Nezhukumatathil (as a distanced, remembering narrator), it forces the reader to immerse themselves in the experience. The reader becomes the speaker, who experiences the actions in the present tense, which creates a sense of urgency. The reader experiences the xenophobia of the classroom, while positioned as the target. Therefore, the humiliation of the speaker-deemed-other is given emotional resonance.

Imaginative Leaps

The poem follows the speaker’s narrative during the early moments of a school day while the teacher takes attendance. The uncomfortable emotions of this small moment are heightened by the juxtaposition of actual events and the speaker’s imaginative discourse regarding those events. After noting an actual occurrence, such as the mispronunciation of her name, the speaker then leaps to an emotional response, usually analyzing it through metaphor. For example, the speaker compares the teacher’s mispronunciation to a butcher making sausage. Other instances like this occur, as when the other students turn to stare at the speaker, and the classroom becomes “one big scallop” (Line 13) populated by “icy [blue]” (Line 13) eyes. Having calmed herself with a happy memory of her family, the speaker then imaginatively tries to humanize her classmates, too, picturing caregivers preparing them for school. However, Nezhukumatathil ends the poem with the speaker fixating on the contents of the other students’ pencil cases, imagining “sharp pencils” (Line 22) and the “sharpener and its tiny blade” (Line 23). It is in these concluding lines where the previous metaphors come full circle: The reader links the “tiny blade” (Line 23) to the earlier butcher metaphor, without the speaker’s help. By preparing the reader to expect this construction, Nezhukumatathil subtly forces the reader’s sympathies to align with the speaker as the reader imaginatively interprets the information as the speaker would.