“Over” – Tim Key, “The Road Not Taken” – Robert Frost – Anders H

This poem is a funny dumb-humor nonsense poem that can be applied to many situations in real life, and is just a step back and recognition of the cyclical nature of life. It starts with Anderson having a goal/purpose, completing it, and then seemingly out of nowhere, having a change of heart for no reason and without question beginning on his new task. The drone-like task to task repetition can be attributed to the average American 9-5. Showing the useless and monotonous nature of most full-time jobs. The second poem is an actually serious poem reflecting the choices and consequences of life. It portrays the conflict between decisions and outcomes very well, painting a picture on how our lives are just made up of these decisions that we sometimes overthink. The first poem shows how not thinking about the results can sometimes get you stuck in a worse situation, especially when Anderson “jumped down”, symbolizing a point of no easy return almost. “I could not travel both” stated in “The Road Not Taken” signifies the definite decision much like the first essay. It relates to our seemingly permanent/no way back now attitudes with certain real-life choices, ex. Buying a House, Taking out a loan. These choices seem like one-way decisions, and these poems both illustrate those thoughts perfectly. They also both go over the themes of reflection, in the first “wanted to climb back” signifies wanting to change a past decision, or wishing you could go back. The ending of “gathering materials” shows that to undo such choices, work must be done, and prior thought probably could’ve made the headache avoidable. In the second, “perhaps the better claim” illustrates thinking ahead, and maybe affecting the decision at hand. The theme of pure reflection is apparent in the second essay at the end when Frost states “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference”. This is a moment of reflection, not of a good or bad decision, just one that the author did not regret making. It also represents a ‘leap of faith’ attitude, and how taking the path that not many take can sometimes lead to better or just more pleasurable results. The cyclical and repetitive nature of both these poems also represents the human condition of coming up to a problem, working through it, just to be faced with another. This obstacle is represented by the wall in the first poem, and the fork in the road in the second. These obstacles can also be seen as decisions that might be hard to make. There is also a contrast in the two ways these characters make decisions. In the first poem, Anderson is driven by pure impulse and has a lack of thinking ahead or just necessity in general. On the other hand the character in Frosts’ poem has a clear choice, but it is more focused on the weight of the decision, and the complexity of the task at hand.

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“Image generated by OpenAI’s DALL·E based on user input, March 2025.”

“Sights” – Tim Key

This poem is a mashup of ironic excitement, revelation, and deadpan humor. It immediately drops us into the action with a major reveal showing that the character’s life is in danger. While this is a climactic plot point, the character whose point of view we are sharing seems completely unbothered. This allows the reader to interpret the backstory of the character all on their own. Are they  used to immediate danger? Are they  just some sorta wacko? Up to you, maybe it’s deadpool talking, and this would all make sense. They then toss in a very witty comment which is ironic as the character seems completely unimpressed with the threat of doom hovering over their life, and is more playing with the thought of it. The thrown in detail at the end of “He’s a professional” gives quite a dire perspective, which might be being held due to the character knowing they have no chance of escape. They might’ve already accepted their fate and the adrenaline and shock of the situation could be what’s leveraging them to make such irreverent comments on such an alarming situation, this statement could be the signature at the end of the letter telling this characters life and they present it so matter-of-fact you could almost miss it.

The song that relates to this poem is “No Surprises” By Radiohead off of the OK Computer album. The haunting vocals and feeling of imminent doom created by this masterful song matches perfectly with the unbothered sense of relinquishment portrayed by the character. The emotional chorus brings a lullaby – like feeling of both safety and dread – think eye of the hurricane. Both the song and poem don’t ever exemplify one feeling, and they are both just emanating a wide range of depressing and casual emotions, this is especially shown throughout the chorus of “No alarms and no surprises (get me out of here)”, where the statement of wanting no alarms or surprises while also not actively doing anything, with a backing echo of “get me out of here” you can see the intent of wanting to break out of this fate, while also not wanting to do anything at all and being self-subdued and surrendering to the threat. They both also touch on the topic of death, as in the song there is a direct link to an inevitable fate both in the lyrics and metaphorically. This is also seen in the poem, which has a theme of silent resignation if read-into. The inevitability of fate that is so apparent in the last line of the poem is also resembled throughout the song with lyrics like “A job that slowly kills you. Bruises that won’t heal” resembles the surrender to whatever force is present without a struggle, and like the poem it strongly implies the inevitability of the threat. Themes of minimalism are also correspondent in both works. The poem carries such a weight in so few words, while the song has long-drawn out vocals, but not too many words in the end, yet they both fill the space in your mind so perfectly.

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OpenAI. “A sniper scope view targeting a humanoid figure with a boombox for a head.” DALL·E, 3 Feb. 2025

No Suprises – Radiohead

“THE FUTILITY OF WAR”, “MOATY”, “UNTITLED” – Tim Key

These three poems perfectly represent the three stages of the goldilocks format. “UNTITLED” is an incredibly short and simple poem, with an easily recognizable meaning. “MOATY” is in the goldilocks area, having a moderately simple meaning, but to fully understand it, you would have to analyze it further. “THE FUTILITY OF WAR” Is the most complicated of the three, with almost any meaning needing to be deduced using an in depth analysis. All of these are meant to be comical, yet they do have meaning. “UNTITLED” from the start seems like a nonsense poem, made to just be comical, but in reality it is poking fun at those who like to make their own clothes, by using extremism it hyperbolizes a hobby that Tim Key finds ridiculous, He states in a note “They’re maniacs”, referring to people who make their own clothes, which fits into his deadpan humor. This is mostly seen through the use of the words “absolutely Enormous”, which are practically redundant and are meant to add exaggeration. All these concepts are immediately apparent, and no in-depth analysis is required to understand this poem. “THE FUTILITY OF WAR” Is a very in-depth poem, with several different perspectives, and points made. It is both a ridicule and criticism of war. The statement that both sides have “lost exactly 300 sons/people.” Is a representation of war getting us nowhere, and the self aware statement of “We’re back where we started.”, followed by the person who stated that being killed immediately after is meant to compound with the showcasing of meaningless deaths. All these aspects, also incorporates the title’s very literal meaning, make this poem hard to understand at first glance, and without any deep reading. It also makes the humor a bit difficult to decipher as it is incredibly deadpan and has aspects of tragicomedy, all which make up Tim Key’s writing style. The perfection, between these three poems, and also the funniest poem of the three is “MOATY”. It uses obvious absurdity stating someone is building a moat to protect their car every single time they park it, it also lists two items, “a pneumatic drill and crates of Evian”. These both contribute to the hilarity as no-one carries around a pneumatic drill, and Evian is a very expensive type of bottled water. Both of these contributions are easy to understand with some analysis. The next layer of the joke is introduced when Key states that the character would also lock the car, essentially making all of the other preparations useless. He also states “Swim the moat”, which allows the reader to take an alternate perspective of maybe the moat is only a foot deep, which would make the poem even funnier. This poem then places itself in the “Just right” zone of the Goldilocks scale, with some surface level comedy while also offering deeper meaning, the first poem not having as much deeper meaning to be found, while still having some comedy, and the second poem having a lot of analysis required just to get the basis of the comedic intent..This type of exaggerated and irreverent humor, accompanied with the sometimes hidden meaning behind the poems is what makes Tim Key an amazing writer.
(538 Words)

OpenAI. “AI-generated Images: An Oversized Patchwork Sweater, an American WWII Soldier, and a Car Surrounded by a Moat.” DALL·E Generated Image, 2024.

“KAFKAESQUEISH?” – Tim Key

Immediately upon reading this essay you understand the sarcasm and implied humor broadcasted throughout it. Such as the title “KAFKAESQUEISH?” Which is a play on words of Kafkaesque, which is a characteristic that can be amended to stories that are oppressive or nightmarish, just like Franz Kafka’s works. The obvious repetition and acknowledgement by the reader and writer that the “orange” is definitely a banana is also very easy to understand. This is important as it allows the average reader to understand some of the hilarity without understanding the hidden meaning behind the reference to Kafka’s writing. The most difficult lines of the poem to understand are the ones that directly reference Kafka’s unique style of writing such as in the end of the poem, as it is making fun of Kafka’s nightmarish writing style, using the word “appalled”, and the obvious overlooking that the orange is definitely a banana. If the reader is not knowledgeable of Kafka’s works they might not get the full joke. After considering the interpretation of the poem, I’ve drawn a deeper meaning of what the Author is trying to express, for example “it was shaped like a banana and was yellow like the other bananas”. This style of descriptive language and recognition of a character’s thoughts is directly mimicking Kafka’s style of writing. You can also derive deeper meaning from the title “KAFKAESQUEISH?”, as the author is implying He tried his best to write a poem that is slightly similar to the writing of Franz Kafka, this is denoted by the -ISH, as the normal term is just Kafkaesque. The question mark on the end seems to represent the uncertainty that the author has that this poem is on point, It could also be to provoke feedback from the audience. The whole perspective throughout the essay also does an incredible job of replicating Kafka, having the righteousness, the emotion, and the inner thoughts and unreliability really paints a similar picture to some of Kafka’s novels, while also not leaning into the genre that deeply, by keeping the themes pretty tame. I fully understand the whole meaning of the poem after a slight amount of thinking, it is not too hard to break down if you are aware of Kafka’s works. The structure feels like Key is trying to replicate a short story within a poem, it embodies comedic timing despite being written, the different statements each with periods really sets up for a hilarious spoken poem, the pause taken to state “He started gloomily down at his orange,” is really just a perfect line, as the author uses descriptive language to give depth on Kafkas emotion about his so called “orange”, the fact that the author is still calling it an orange relates to Kafka’s writing as it sort of takes on the role of an unreliable narrator, or the narrator is just Kafka himself. I think this poem does a perfect job of what it was written for, as a comedic take on a well respected poet’s style.

(505 words)

“Franz Kafka Questioning a Banana.” Generated by DALL·E, OpenAI, 21 Oct. 2024.