We sometimes get so annoyed at someone in our lives that we feel helpless. We feel so angry that we feeling like killing the one who troubles us. But we know that it is immoral to do so and so we keep quite.
But this annoyance fades away in sometime as we get used to the situation and get adapted to dealing with it with a positive attitude. We often start taking it lightly and start enjoying it and the anger of the past gets buried deep somewhere without giving us any discomfort.
Billy Collins, the poet, is also too annoyed with his neighbor’s dog who keeps barking continuously. Billy is not able to tolerate the noise of the bark and is terrible annoyed.
The tone of annoyance is prominent in the initial part of the poem. The title-‘Another reason why I don’t keep a gun in the house’ brings out his intolerance and indirectly suggests that if he had a gun in the house, he would have killed the dog next door.
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Even though he wants to suppress the bark, yet he doesn’t want to violent. The repetition of the phrase ‘The neighbor’s dog will not stop barking’ suggests that he is too annoyed over the barking dog.
The pain that the poet feels due to the bark of the dog is re-emphasized in the lines where the dog’s barks clash with the Beethoven’s symphony playing on the poet’s orchestra. The image of the muted rhythmic barks of the dog being heard even when the symphony was being played at loud volumes on the orchestra clearly brings out the poet’s intolerance for the barking dog.
In spite of his annoyance over the dog’s incessant barks, the poet is able to get over and accept it. The tone of reflection is seen when the poet imagines the dog to be a solo part of his symphony. The line “his head raised confidently as if Beethoven had included a part for the barking dog” is a humorous way that the poet adopts to accept the intolerable dog. He manages to put himself to a restful state where he imagines the dog to be sitting in the oboe section of the orchestra barking his part. Also this is an acceptance to the fact that music may come from anywhere and not merely precious music instruments. He reflects upon the thought that all musicians are listening in surprise standing still when the dog continues to bark as if the bark was some pleasant and touching music by the dog.
The poet switches his tone from intolerance to acceptance and reflection in a humorous way. The imagination of the dog sitting on the orchestra is weird yet mind-provoking about the poet’s change in outlook towards the barking dog. The idea is evident that any annoying situation should gradually be accepted to bring back your peace of mind and to feel light and better about it. What annoys you highly can turn out humorous just by changing your outlook towards it.