English Literature

Stealing

In the poem Stealing, a desperate young man attempts to fulfil his craving for company, and capture small moments of other people’s happiness. He manages to accomplish these desires by means of stealing and law breaking. To this boy, robbery is not for money but is instead a frantic attempt to fulfil a lonely life. Bad experiences have ridden this boy’s existence; explaining his need for a companion and glimpses of other people’s joy. However, the method he uses to accomplish his aspirations show no compassion towards the people’s lives that have been affected by the damage he has caused.

The whole poem is from the thief’s very open perspective; he describes how he steals, and what he thinks at these moments. The poem starts off with the thief repeating the question he was just asked by the person speaking to him- ‘The most unusual thing I ever stole?’ From the nature of the question it is clear that the person asking was unlikely to be a police officer, but more likely to be a friend or councillor. The fact that events are highly descriptive means that the boy was just in need of someone to discuss his life with, proving that there was a lack of sympathetic people in it during the time of his law-breaking.

In the beginning of the poem, the boy describes how he steals a snowman. This may seem unusual but this was only due to his yearning for companionship. The boy describes the snowman as ‘ a tall white mute’ The snowman being ‘mute’ could give one explanation why the thief chose to steal him; he could not speak so could not judge him or tell anyone about his crimes. The thief then goes straight into