The poem ‘I wanna be yours’ is written by John Cooper Clarke. He is a punk poet with a strong anti-establishment streak where he rejects the conventions of traditional fidelity that characterizes traditional love poetry. The poet chooses ordinary objects seen as metaphors to express his love and to assert his desire to be useful and protective towards his lover. The overall theme of the poem is his all-consuming love for his lover. The title ‘i wanna be yours’ is used as a refrain which signifies the loss of control showed by the narrator dues to the overwhelming passion he feels for the woman
The first stanza consists of useful objects through which the narrator compares himself. The poem begins with the personification of the first useful object ‘vacuum cleaner’. This shows the narrator’s possessive nature and shows that he is ready to accept all qualities of the woman. The word ‘dust’ is implied to be the negative qualities of the woman. The narrator is willing to ‘breathe’ all of it in and accept who she is. The second useful object the poet compares himself to is a ‘ford cortina’. He brings in the imagery of a reliable car to show that he is trustworthy and will never ‘rust’. The third useful object is a metaphor ‘coffee hot/coffee pot’. The metaphor of the coffee conveys the narrator’s wish to provide emotional warmth to the lover. His willingness and submissive nature are conveyed in the line ‘you call the shots’. The imagery of commodities in the first stanza is used to illustrate his love.
