There is a phrase that people here time and time again, but don’t truly understand the meaning of it until the phrase can be applied to their own lives. “You don’t realize what you have until it’s gone.” Atwood’s poem is a direct reflection of this quote. Her poem “Bored” talks about how she hated the repetitiveness of her daily events with her father. But it was only until he had passed on was it that she truly did realize how much she missed those daily events. Sometimes people don’t understand how important others mean to them until it is too late.

I found the poem “Bored” to be very well written and very touching. Atwood did a good job of describing how easy it is to overlook some of the better things in life. This poem revolved around repetition. And it was the repetition that makes the reader aware of the love that Margaret has for her father. Her poem starts with “All those times I was bored out of my mind. Holding the log while he sawed it. Holding the string while he measured, boards, distances between things, or pounded stakes into the ground for rows and rows of lettuces and beets, which I then (bored) weeded”(588). Atwood is obviously conveying to the reader that the time she spent with her father wasn’t what she considered of much importance and actually disliked it. This is because she only saw it as work and as a constant hardship of recurrence on herself. She never comprehended that these days with her father were the better days of her life, and she only wishes she could have them back. “Why do I remember it as sunnier all the time then, although it more often rained, and more birdsong”(589)?

Another aspect that can be derived from this poem is Atwood’s father’s obvious intentions to give her an awareness of the many adversities life can obtain. He has made sure she leads a life that doesn’t result from a spoiled childhood. He made her attentive of a hard days work, which is probably one of the best things a father can teach his child. It is absolutely essential that parents in general teach their children the many hardships life may behold. This gives the child a better direction in means of future obligations.

Atwood describes her father’s ambition to show her some of the finer things in life and the beauty of nature and nature’s way of life. “Such minutiae. It’s what the animals spend most of their time at, ferrying the sand, grain by grain, from their tunnels, shuffling the leaves in their burrows. He pointed such things out, and I would look at the whorled texture of his square finger, earth under the nail”(589). This quote is implying that her attentiveness wasn’t towards what her father was teaching her, but rather any visible characteristics about him that would catch her eye at that certain moment. This is what I think she resents the most about the time she spent with him. She never actually listened to the wisdom that he had obtained and preached toward her. Atwood wasn’t able to understand that his words were of much meaning and was the key to a happy life.

When her father passed away, it was only then that she realized the knowledge that he had possessed. “Now I wouldn’t be bored. Now I would know too much. Now I would know”(589). This unfortunately is a fact of life. People take life for granted, but only realize it when it is in fact too late. I feel this poem acts more as a memo to society in regards to life and how insight from earlier generations is the best tool used to succeed and to be truly happy. I think a more appropriate title would be “Warning” or maybe even “Beware”.

Works Cited

Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000. 447-458

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User Comments

luntik 2009-04-28 02:50AM
	liki it! ---------------------

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