Discuss Wendy Cope’s Treatment of Ordinary Life Being Boring

Discuss Wendy Cope’s Treatment of Ordinary Life Being Boring Wendy Cope treats ordinary life as a fairly positive thing, in ‘Being Boring’. In the poem, she describes how she is content with a boring life and shows that she dislikes anything which is out of the ordinary. This is an autobiographical poem, showing how Cope is content with an ordinary, boring life as opposed to drama and turbulence. This is shown by the use of regular stanzas and rhyme schemes, the use of language and the use of imagery. The poem is made up of three, eight-line stanzas. This is a very regular form, which emulates the regular life which Cope hopes to lead. This is emphasised by the regular rhyme and rhythm, which creates a plodding and comfortable feel to the poem. Each stanza ends with the word ‘boring’ which emphasises this further and also adds a sense of humour to the poem.
The writer opens the poem with a quote: “May you live in interesting times,” which the reader expects to be a blessing, but actually is a “Chinese curse”. This portrays anything out of the ordinary as a bad thing. In general, Cope uses colloquial language in the poem, which puts the reader at ease and emulates the feeling of normal conversation. Wendy Cope uses linguistic techniques to emulate her way of life further. She writes, “still eating and sleeping and snoring,” when talking about her partner. The poet uses the power of three to continue with her consistent rhythms and the sibilance in “still…sleeping and snoring” helps to put this across stronger. The word “still” shows that this is an ordinary thing for him to be doing, in line with the general theme of the poem. The opening of the poem is strong in the way that it immediately asks a question: “What’s new?” In naming small, everyday things like “the garden is growing” and “I had a slight cold,” Cope makes it clear that nothing of importance is going on in her life. She uses short sentences to emphasise this when she writes, “I get on my