The only period in the poem is at the end, concluding it with a solid finality that leaves readers thinking about the times they lived the “good life.” The empty space after “never” is evocative of money’s absence. Readers have to move down to the next line in order to finish the thought. The latter occurs when the poet cuts off a line before its natural stopping point-for example, the very effective transition between lines three and four. One of the more interesting features of this poem’s structure is the way that Smith chose to deal with line breaks, using end-stopped lines and enjambment. They appear to mostly be the same length, containing around the same number of words. Despite this, the lines are themselves visually similar. This style of writing is common to Smith’s poetry. The lines do not follow a consistent rhyme scheme, nor do they conform to a metrical pattern, meaning they are written in free verse. Smith is a ten-line poem that is contained within one stanza of text.

This kind of happiness came about from hard work and simple indulgence. The speaker takes pleasure from how money’s rare presence in her life brought her joy that one may assume no longer exists. She evokes feelings of nostalgia as her speaker looks back on their life and recalls how they once dealt with money. In ‘The Good Life,’ Smith engages with the themes of money/wealth and happiness. It was one where money only featured rarely, making its presence all the more meaningful. In Smith’s poem, readers can consider this definition of “the good life” or dig deeper and consider the life that Smith’s speaker feels nostalgia for.

It is one of luxury where the need is a thing of the past. “The Good Life” is a well-used phrase that is usually used to refer to the world of the wealthy.

Despite this hardship, she can’t help but romanticize this time in her life and remember it fondly. For the rest of the week or month, she lived on coffee and bread. In the first lines, Smith makes an interesting comparison between money and a “mysterious lover.” These images make her speaker feel nostalgic for a time in which money was something she had right after payday. Smith is a thoughtful poem about a speaker’s relationship with money and the pleasures and hardships it could bring.

Tracy k smith poems life on mars