domestic asides poem explanation
Answers
The poem is a funny take on unwanted guests – Mrs. Skinner, her two sons and two daughters. The host, while using flowery language to greet the guests, secretly hopes they would not stay back for dinner and wishes unpleasant things to happen to the guests. The host is glad that Mr. Skinner did not come, as he would have finished off their stock of brandy and got drunk. Finally, when the guests are about to leave, without having dinner, the host asks them to stay a little longer and have dinner, all the while wishing that they would leave quickly. She reminds herself to tell David (who must be her butler) that next time, he must tell these people, that she is not at home.
‘Domestic Asides’ or ‘Truth in Parenthesis’ is a poem by English poet Thomas Hood (1799 – 1845).