Edgar A Guest's "Equipment": analyzing poetic elements and meaning

STILTS (Structure, Tone, Imagery, Language, Theme and Subject) analysis:

"Equipment" by Edgar a. Guest

The poem entitled "Equipment" by Edgar A. Guest is a didactic poem with an instructional tone. It has the form and style of an address that a father from long ago might write to his son. The first line directly addresses the reader as a 'lad' and counsels the lad to "figure it [life] out" for himself. Every human being has the same basic equipment, writes the poet: "Two arms, two hands, two legs, two eyes. And / a brain to use." The author stoutly informs the 'lad' that he can pull himself up by his own bootstraps, provided that he has an 'I can do anything' attitude. The last line of the first stanza explicitly states this to the reader. "Start for the top/And say 'I can.'"

The poem is structured so that every stanza begins with either a command to the reader, such as "Figure it out for yourself;" "Look them over, the wise and great," or a broad, over-arching positive statement, like "you can" and "you are." This suggests that the poet will accept no ifs, ands, or buts from the lad, if the boy makes any objection about the obstacles and difficulties life may cast in his path to success. Doubt is what causes people to fail, stresses the poet, and a person must never make excuses. "You can triumph and come to skill, / You can be great if you only will." This structure allows for no response from the 'lad' or the reader. Because the writer issues commands and speaks about life with such a confident tone, the reader is encouraged to think that the author is right and merit will always be rewarded in the world.

The imagery of the poem reinforces again and again the theme of what constitutes the right equipment for success. The first stanza stresses how the lad has the same equipment as 'great men' when they started out in the sense of having the same physical, human attributes of body and mind. (Note that the language of the poem does not allow for the possibility of a young woman being like these great men, as she does not have the same physical equipment, nor does the poet speak of great women. Also people with physical disabilities who do not have eyes or fully-functioning limbs are not acknowledged). The second stanza speaks of the equipment of food and clothes. No matter if someone is rich or poor, they still need to eat and wear clothing: "They take their food from a common plate, / And similar knives and forks they use, / With similar laces they tie their shoes."

The obvious protest to this advice is that the rich eat better food and have better clothing. Quite often the very poor do not have enough to eat or even shoes to wear. This marks the poet as addressing a middle-class lad, who might not have all of the resources of the aristocracy, but still has enough food and clothing, even though he might have some anxieties about using the correct fork at a fancy meal or wearing the right kind of shoes, on the right occasions.