Sedentary — Summary

Dave BontaCheerful

My seat pleases me, but not to stand and walk. A hard matter is pleasure.

Show the whole poemHide the poem

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

In just a few lines, the speaker admits something a little embarrassing: sitting feels good, and getting up does not. "My seat / pleases me" sounds contented, almost smug. But the next phrase, "but not / to stand and walk," pulls the other way. The pleasure of sitting is tied to a reluctance to move, so the comfort comes with a faint note of guilt or inertia.

The last two lines turn this into something bigger. "A hard matter / is pleasure" can be read a few ways. Maybe pleasure is hard to resist, or hard to give up once we have it. Maybe real pleasure is difficult to find or understand. The sentence order feels slightly twisted, as if the speaker is still working it out.

The mood is quiet, wry, and a bit lazy. The short, broken lines mimic someone settling in and pausing to think, and the title, "Sedentary," names the habit with a gentle shrug.

Read also

More by Dave Bonta

All poems
ContemplativeDave Bonta

Painted Trillium

Trillium undulatum Painted lady, late riser, you rush out of the ground, get pollinated on the fly
ContemplativeDave Bonta

Initiation

Let him continue in the ground, he who is now dead, where all things hurry—
ContemplativeDave Bonta

In good light

On a maple’s pale bark, a zigzag ladder—old tooth-marks from a wandering snail? Green islands of moss