Problematizical — Summary

Dave BontaContemplative

which to be a ropemaker or a sun

the old East India Company or the rains

no end of accounts to tire my yes

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The poem is a short, puzzled shrug dressed up as a question. The speaker asks which of two things to be: "a ropemaker or a sun," then "the old East India Company / or the rains." Each pair mixes the humble and the enormous, or the human-made and the natural. A ropemaker twists fibre by hand, while a sun simply burns. A trading company counts and controls, while rains fall without keeping score.

The last two lines suggest why the choice feels hard. "No end of accounts" can mean ledgers and bookkeeping, but also stories and explanations, and all of them "tire my yes." The speaker's willingness to say yes, to commit or agree, is worn down by too many demands and too many versions of things.

The title's odd, clumsy word, "Problematizical," fits that mood. The tone is wry and weary, a little playful, with a longing to be something simpler than a person buried in obligations. The poem leaves the question open, and that unanswered feeling is its point.

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