In the author’s village, they people are offended if their neighbours pass them without greeting them. They are respectful to each other and feel that it is rude to ignore someone. Life in a village tends to be more relaxed compared to life in a town and perhaps this is one of the reasons for the lack of friendliness in the town. The author uses the interesting phrases “the grief-joy mixture of knowing and being known takes a lifetime to drink.” This shows that they are all friends and they have taken the time to establish friendships. “The grief joy mixture” is a metaphor for friendship. It is also an oxymoron, which is used to show the strength of their friendships because they are together in bad times as well as good times. They support each other and take comfort in each other’s company. Also, the phrase “takes a lifetime to drink” means that they have got to know each other over a period of time. The author knows that building a friendship takes work and that it does not happen spontaneously. She also knows that it is worth making the effort because in return she has valuable friendships within her community. Alternatively, it could be an indication that her idea of a worldwide Hello Day will give people the initial encouragement thy need to get to know each other and establish friendships.
The next stanza is relatively long and uses lots of literary techniques to portray the change the author feels will take place if people become more open. The first example is “The unbarring of windows and gates, the demolition of fences and walls.” This is a metaphor for how people put up barriers in order to avoid intimacy. It is also a representation of the demolition of people’s attitudes towards others and their habit of isolating themselves from others. Another interesting metaphor is the mention of “entry permits”. This implies that people feel that they cannot speak to someone they are not acquainted with unless they have an excuse to. No one feels that it is necessary to acknowledge their neighbours unless they have a specific reason to. This is reinforced by the phrase “so they can say hello.” Perhaps people want to say hello and make friends with other people but are afraid to make the first move. An interesting simile used in the third stanza is “Like a toothpaste smile”. This creates a pleasant image in the reader’s mind. For people who don’t usually bother to speak to others, or don’t feel that they can, a friendly smile can be reassuring and refreshing. These are all optimistic uses of imagery.
However, after this the mood of the poem then changes as the author suggests that maybe people don’t need an excuse to approach each other and establish friendships. The author considers the possibility that people do not build friendships because they do not want to. This is conveyed when she says “Maybe all they want is the momentary flash”. This suggests that people want to remain shut off from each other and their manners are only brief. This is a contrast to the mood of the poem before.
Throughout the poem, the structure and use of language changes to reflect the narrator’s feelings. In the first stanza, the mood is cynical as the author is reflecting on her annoyance at people’s attitudes. The sentence structure is short and precise, with few literary or descriptive techniques. The rhythm is inconsistent and fragmented. Then in the second stanza the author talks about how different it is in her own village, and the sentences are much longer and the rhythm begins to flow more naturally. At the end of this stanza the author describes the benefits of being friends with her neighbours. This is where she starts to use descriptive imagery in order to portray her increasingly optimistic mood as she thinks about her home village and her friends. The third stanza is where the rhythm develops into a natural-sounding and flowing pace. She uses a lot of literary devices and complex sentence structures to create an uplifting mood. However, after this the mood changes again and becomes pessimistic. The ending of the poem consists of short lines and the rhythm does not flow as well as in the third stanza. The short sentences used relates to their content; such as the implication that people want to have brief and ephemeral conversations. This change in rhythm and structure helps the reader to understand the author’s meaning and to create the intended atmosphere.
