"On Giles and Joan"

I really enjoyed Jonson's satire in this poem. It reminds me exactly of today's married couples, except Giles and Joan don't get divorced like everyone else does (or maybe that's just in California, I can't speak for NC). The concept of it was just simple and funny. I almost expected to read "Dick and Jane" at times. Basically this poem is satirizing married couples who aren't exactly happy with one another. After listing all of the great reasons why two people shouldn't be together, Jonson slaps down the last line to make it all a big joke. Because the couple are in such an equal state of loathing for one another, Jonson says, "I know no couple better can agree" (18). The poem sounds almost cynical, but still makes for great entertainment.

Throughout the poem Jonson uses literary devices to elaborate on certain lines and words. For example, anastrophe is used several times. The word "married" is emphasized in line three with the word "repents" so we can see how grave a mistake Giles thinks he's made in marrying Joan. Also, line fifteen says, "In all affections she concurreth still." The word "concureth is emphasized her to remind readers of the agreement between the unhappy couple. It's almost like agreeing to disagree. Another device Jonson plays with is enjambment. The particular sentence that caught my attention using this made up lines nine and ten: "Ofttimes, when Giles doth find/ Harsh sights at home, Giles wisheth he were blind." I'm not exactly sure what the "harsh sights" are that Jonson refers to, but phrase certainly stands out. My interpretation is that either Joan frequently cheats on her husband, thus creating harsh sights upon his arrival home, or they simply hate looking at eachother period. Either way it makes for a pretty sad marriage.

All of the emphasis Jonson puts on the negative aspects of the Giles/Joans relationship only gives the last line a bigger kick of satire. Readers are supposed to get caught up in this ugly relationship while picking up the subtle hint that each spouse agrees with the other's opinion. Therefore, Jonson is able to turn everything around as a big joke in the end, but still hold an impact.

I also noticed that throughout the poem, Giles is always the character with the first opinion. His wife is always in agreement with him, but her thoughts are never mentioned prior to Gile's. I wonder if this is having to do with sexism on Jonson's part. And when Gile's comes home to "harsh sights" (presumably Joan cheating), does this mean that only women do bad things in marriages? There seems to be some stereotyping. In lines 12-13, Jonson talks about the husband denying his children as his and Joan "so swears." Is this again bringing up the fact that the wife cheats and raises the children of different fathers? I'm not really sure, but many of our poets so far have seemed rather sexist, and I wouldn't be suprised if Jonson was another.