d be an option. Further the poet pays homage to convention and the power socially reinforced institutions by way of mocking them. We see in the above passage that he understands the pressure from others for him to conform. He realizes to remain in opposition to these norms is tantamount to geriatric hell:
As the poem readily and humorously admits, there is still a sense in which to remain outside of all of this is to risk conditions of isolation, ostracism and freakishness:
. . .what if I’m 60 years old and not married,
all alone in a furnished room with pee stains on my underwear
and everyone else is married! All the universe is married by me!
There is a wry acceptance, then, on the part of the speaker of the power of convention of all the elements, from the sentimental to the dogmatic, that are deployed in defence [sic] of it
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