About His Person

This poem is a Conundrum , it has many questions, that are never answered. This make analysis harder, as by the end of the poem you are still unsure on what it is actually trying to say.

Through out the whole poem there is many metaphors hinting at the idea of death. The poem's title its self is also a hint at death. About his Person, the police use this when talking about a dead body. They use this to refer to what the body has on them. This already means that the reader, if they know this is already thinking and linking to death.

There are also many other metaphors that link to death, for example 'a library card on it's date of expiry.' This could just be a coincidence, but it could also be a metaphor, because the life of the body has expired as well as the library card. The library card is linked to the death of the person. Both expired at the same time.

Also there is the link with the analogue watch. A self winding watch is a kinetic energy powered watch, this means that it will only run when there is movement happening, or if power has been stored up by recent movement from your wrist. 'an analogue watch, self winding, stopped.' The fact that the watch has stopped means the body has not been moving, and also the fact it stores up the energy means that the body has not been moving for a while. Days maybe. No one would wear a none working watch, none moving watch, so he has to have been there for a while. This is another link to the idea of death.

Then on the 5th stanza, it provides another question, that never gets answered. 'A final demand,/in his own hand,'. A final demand could mean many things. This could mean, maybe he had bill that is on final demand. Is this why he is dead. Maybe bills and late payments got on top of him and maybe he killed himself? Or maybe it could mean that is is something like a Will. Maybe if he knew that was going to die, then he would have written a will and is holding it, so that when he is found it is easy to see what he wants done. But also the line 'in his own hand' This also has two meanings. It could mean that it is written in his own hand writting but could also mean that it is phyiscally held in his hand. And if it was a will or something of that sort, like instructions on what to do when he is dead, you imagine it would be written in his own hand writting. This is creating more questions about his death and what happened. Making the poem more intreging, you find that you will continue to read on to see if your questions are answered, but as it is Conundrum, you just find that you finish the poem with more questions than answers. The next line though, gives you a sense that you are about to get some answers, ' A rolled up note of explinations' Sounds like it could lead on to having an answer, but instead it just leads to more questions. You don't find out what that note fo explination says.

On Stanxza 9, it tells you about his finger. 'no gold or silver,/ but crowning one finger' this tells you that once there was a ring on that finger. Was he once married? at this point we don't know, it could just be a ring that he no longer wears.

But on stanza 10, you start to get answers, answers to the stanza before but not answers to questions that you want, but instead it gives you information on his life. A give away to who or what he used to be. 'a ring of white unweathered skin' This tells you that the ring has been there for a long time. People wear wedding rings for a long time and resulting in a 'white unweathered' patch of skin.