Did I Miss Anything? by Tom Wayman

“Did I Miss Anything? By Tom Wayman

Friday June 5th, 2015

Tom Wayman’s “Did I Miss Anything?” is an excellent example of a poem the represents an individual coming to terms with their own identity and fighting back against what is expected.  The poem appears to be written from two distinct points of view, that of the student and the teacher but examined more closely it is simply a series of sarcastic replies made by from the point of view of the teacher. Each stanza in the poem is written as a response to the student who has asked “Did I Miss Anything?”  The stanzas go from one extreme to another using the words “nothing” and “everything” to show the teachers frustration with the question.

In stanza two, when the answer is “everything”, the teacher explains that they have given heavily weighted exams, assigned readings, and prepared a quiz.  This stanza shows the teacher fighting back against what the student expects.  The student most likely wanted to hear that they didn’t miss anything important so that their decision to skip class was justified.  It is also the teacher’s way of pointing out that the student should have shown up for class because anything and everything could have happened.  

When the teacher says “nothing” it is pointing out that most students fail to see the value of their education, and therefore determined it to be a waste of time that will have no effect on the future.  The teacher is also coming to terms with the realization that regardless of what took place in class, the student’s opinion is that missing the class was more important and so they reply with “nothing”.  The “nothing” stanzas then have a more lenient opinion like, "Nothing. None of the content of this course has value or meaning Take as many days off as you like: any activities we undertake as a class I assure you will not matter either to you or me and are without purpose". This is what the teacher assumes that the student wants to hear, or is hoping to hear.

The revelation of education’s importance is outlined is stanza four where a “heavenly being” brings a message to students that they must speak out on why education is so important. The teacher's opinion is grossly exaggerated by saying, "A few minutes after we began last time a shaft of light suddenly descended and an angel or other heavenly being appeared and revealed to us what each woman or man must do to attain divine wisdom in this life and the hereafter" this is clearly an impossibility and a blatant use of sarcasm by the teacher as a response. Though none of us want to hear the comments of the "teacher", it can be disappointing to find out that a significant event has occurred and you missed it.