"Suburban" and "Walking the Dog" have titles that don't give an accurate description of the poem
The Commonalities of Crap.
The Poems "Suburban" and "Walking the Dog" both have titles that don't quite give an accurate depiction of the poems subject. Which is an unexpected humor that involves dog shit and the dog owners involvement in it. The poems have many commonalities between them because of their similar topic, as well as the similarities in their common owners.
At the beginning of both poems the reader realizes the setting is within a suburban setting and involves a dog and his owner. They both seem to share the quite typical suburban neighborhood of the polite yet arrogant neighbors who really could care less about one another but, are phony nice upon contact. For example, Mrs. Friar in the poem "Suburban" says to Mr. Ciardi "The fact is your dog has just deposited - forgive me - a large repulsive object in my petunias." and then goes on to say "I always have loved dogs . . . but really!", in regard to the large bowel movement that had just been removed from her petunias. Its funny to see how she is so proud and "respectful" that she can't even call the dog feces "a large repulsive object" without saying "forgive me" before hand. Yet, she can make a big deal out of such a small thing like dog shit. The humor is seen in this also due to the fact that many readers probably have at least one to several Mrs. Friar's in their neighborhood.
Of course, one of the main things that these poems have in common with one another is their overall mild vulgarity in describing their dogs, as well as other dogs, shit. This is also a key humor point in both poems as well. Take for example the line in "Suburban" where Mr. Ciardi thinks to ask Mrs. Friar "Have you checked the rectal grooving for a positive I.D.?". By this of course he means to check the grooves in the dogs anus to see if it matches with the grooves in the shit. It's like the small suburbs version of matching a bullet with a gun, which is actually quite humorous. It almost seems like a parody of CSI or
The Poems "Suburban" and "Walking the Dog" both have titles that don't quite give an accurate depiction of the poems subject. Which is an unexpected humor that involves dog shit and the dog owners involvement in it. The poems have many commonalities between them because of their similar topic, as well as the similarities in their common owners.
At the beginning of both poems the reader realizes the setting is within a suburban setting and involves a dog and his owner. They both seem to share the quite typical suburban neighborhood of the polite yet arrogant neighbors who really could care less about one another but, are phony nice upon contact. For example, Mrs. Friar in the poem "Suburban" says to Mr. Ciardi "The fact is your dog has just deposited - forgive me - a large repulsive object in my petunias." and then goes on to say "I always have loved dogs . . . but really!", in regard to the large bowel movement that had just been removed from her petunias. Its funny to see how she is so proud and "respectful" that she can't even call the dog feces "a large repulsive object" without saying "forgive me" before hand. Yet, she can make a big deal out of such a small thing like dog shit. The humor is seen in this also due to the fact that many readers probably have at least one to several Mrs. Friar's in their neighborhood.
Of course, one of the main things that these poems have in common with one another is their overall mild vulgarity in describing their dogs, as well as other dogs, shit. This is also a key humor point in both poems as well. Take for example the line in "Suburban" where Mr. Ciardi thinks to ask Mrs. Friar "Have you checked the rectal grooving for a positive I.D.?". By this of course he means to check the grooves in the dogs anus to see if it matches with the grooves in the shit. It's like the small suburbs version of matching a bullet with a gun, which is actually quite humorous. It almost seems like a parody of CSI or