Poem

1.       A meek girl stuffed in a dark corner

2.       Trapped by the walls of menus

3.       Slowly caving in as Time passes by

4.       4 o’clock signals the flames to light up the grounds

5.       Dusk sets in as the lights dim

6.       It is the calm before the storm

7.       The clock strikes 5

8.       Time’s Arc pulls up to the feeding grounds

9.       A sea of animals flood in from the Arc

10.   “Where would you like to sit, Time?”

11.   She shall diffuse this by osmosis

12.   She shall fight off the hungry pagers

13.   Ask not where should we seat them

14.   But ask who can take this table

15.   The bar is a watering hole

16.   All glasses leaving in pairs

17.   Time is cut off at 6

18.   Flames simmer as the animals are fed

19.   Time’s ship sails away, satisfied  

20.   Out of the dark corner reveals the meek girl

21.   She lives another day

Lines 11+12: Anaphora:“she shall” repetition in the beginning of both phrases, this emphasizes that she has to fix the issue at hand quickly. She must do her job and yet have to deal with making sure everyone has a place to sit even if they go on a wait. 

Line 10: Apostrophe: The meek girl is talking directly to the innate object, Time. This gives the effect that the story is actually happening in sequential order because where it is placed is the point in time when the host would talk to the customer about where they would like to sit and how many will be at the table. The meek girl is also talking to the literal time who has somewhat been personified.

Likes 13+14: Antimetabole: The repetition of words, “ask not, but ask” in reverse order. They emphasize that you shouldnt just be thinking about where you need to seat the voyagers but who will be serving their table, which is more important.

Line 15: Simile: Comparing the bar and a watering hole while saying one is the other. This goes along with the analogy that the restaraunt is the feeding grounds for these animals. Typically animals gather at the watering hole when they are thirsty to get a drink.

Line 12: Personification: Giving a pager the lifelike quality of being hungry. Having the pager be hungry and almost make you think that it will bite the meek girl goes along with how the animals are hungry. When animals get too hungry they might even take a bite out of something until they get fed.

Line 7: Personification: Giving the clock the ability to strike something is a lifelike quality that it cannot do. The striking of the clock emphasizes how immediate everything happens. Everyone gets off of work around five and rush in to get a drink after work, making it happen in an instant.

Line 11: Irony: It is ironic that the meek girl should diffuse the problem, thus seating all the guests, by osmosis because the animals came in as a “sea” of people. Osmosis is the diffusion by water, therefore making it ironic.

Line 16: Irony and allusion: It is ironic that the glasses would leave in pairs just as the voyagers would come off the Ark, just as all the animals road the Noah’s Ark in pairs. Making it a biblical refference.

Throughout the entire poem Time is a character. Time was given a personified role of being a person even though it is an innate object.

The whole poem is also an allusion that twists between the reality of a host seating customers at rush hour and the image of the restaurant actually being a feeding area that a large Ark can pull up to and be serviced.

Translation:

1.       Hosts are usually quiet and have to stand behind a counter in a corner of the restaurant

2.       They have to prepare the menus and are constantly surrounded by them, servers and bussers also bring the menus back to them constantly throughout the night

3.       The “wall of menus” closes in, meaning they run out as the happy hour begins

4.       At 4 is when all the candles go out onto the tables

5.       When it starts to become dark out, we also dim the lights in the restaurant

6.        There is only about 20 minutes before everything gets out of hand for happy hour

7.       Once it gets to be 5 we know that the crazy will begin

8.       All the cars or “ships” pull into the parking lot

9.       Tons of people enter the restaurant at once

10.   We ask them all “Which table would you like”

11.   We diffuse by seating them in the dining room

12.   When there aren’t enough tables we have to go on a wait an give each customer a pager which buzzes when their table is ready

13.   When we are in a panic we just seat customers and find a waiter that can take the table

14.   During happy hour the bar is super busy and everyone wants to get drinks

15.   Happy hour means you get two drinks, leaving in “pairs”

16.   Everyone is cut off from happy hour at 6 because it only lasts from 3-6

17.   Once everyone has eaten and has left we take the candles off the tables ”simmer the flames”

18.   The quiet hosts are tired from the busy night and finally get to leave