According to PoetryArchive.org, Sophie Hannah wrote "Occupational Hazard" after she was creeped out by a stranger who approached her in a pub after she'd given a public reading of her poems. This stranger told her that he'd never slept with a poet before. Yikes!
So, using that incident as creative inspiration, Hannah wrote this poem, a short one with just four stanzas of four lines each. Throughout, in a steady singsong rhythm with short...
According to PoetryArchive.org, Sophie Hannah wrote "Occupational Hazard" after she was creeped out by a stranger who approached her in a pub after she'd given a public reading of her poems. This stranger told her that he'd never slept with a poet before. Yikes!
So, using that incident as creative inspiration, Hannah wrote this poem, a short one with just four stanzas of four lines each. Throughout, in a steady singsong rhythm with short lines and clear rhymes, the speaker lists all kinds of people with whom the creepy stranger has slept, from "accountants and brokers" to "florists," and people dumb, smart, rich, and poor.
The poem closes when the creepy stranger says that real poets are rare, not like cashiers; in response, the creeped-out speaker provides him with the addresses where some real poets live, and then she thinks about not being a poet anymore.
As you can see, it's a funny poem that expresses how bizarre and uncomfortable it is to be approached by someone claiming to have slept with all kinds of people, who can't wait to sleep with you because you're special. Clearly the author, and the speaker, are eager to run the other way as well as laugh at the situation.
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