Aubade

The speaker of “Aubade” lists the daily concerns that might distract their beloved and motivate them to get out of bed and start the day; in this way, the speaker hooks their beloved’s attention and sets up a persuasive argument to spend the morning in bed together. Daily tasks and preoccupations have little meaning in the grand scheme of life, but most readers will acknowledge that such tasks must be considered at some point in the day. Checking the newspaper for “last night’s soccer shot” (Line 3), “dropping off your dry cleaning” (Line 9), and “mowing your lawn” (Line 11) are all non-urgent tasks requiring a degree of attention for most people. According to the speaker, all these tasks all minor enough to be postponed in light of the more pressing need to spend time together while the lovers are alive and well.

By listing these trivial tasks characterizing everyday life, Jackson universalizes the importance of making time for love while also making a generalization about contemporary culture. Distractions like “a tentative fiancé” (Line 16) and “e-mails” (Line 20) abound in modern American culture; critics of technology claim these supposed advancements interfere with the ability to authentically relate with one another. These distractions combine with the essential duties of normal life to compromise the amount of time lovers can spend together, and the speaker of the poem acknowledges these distractions as a way to both make light of them and dismiss them as less important.