“And He Worried About It”, most people worry about so many things which are not in their control – this is just useless. People worry about the weather, about what is going to be, about the future… And this is the message Sam Walter Foss gives us in his Poem “He Worried About It”. People worry about things they cannot change anyway. Apparently, this is not a new problem of our generation, on the contrary it is man’s nature. Foss wrote this Poem in 1895. This problem exists already for centuries, when will we learn? The poem “He Worried About It” presents us a man who is constantly worrying about the future and what is going to be. He is thinking of all the horrible things other than about the stuff he really can change. For Example: “And some day the earth will fall into the sun—And he worried about it— “(Foss), and he also worries about global warming and having the ice-age coming back. As if anyone can do something to prevent these things. Worrying does not help at all. Foss ends off his poem with a paragraph showing that this person, as do most people today, does not worry about the things which lie at hand, the things in which we have a say and could be changed. Yet, “He didn't worry about it.” It does not even occur to him to worry about his hard-working wife and daughter, he does not even look at the present issues only at the gruelling future. Foss wants to show us how useless this is and we should concentrate on the things which lie at hand.
The Poem is written very well. Foss uses great poetic elements which bring the message across without it having to be written out explicitly. In Contrast to other poems in which either the message is not clearly understood or it has to be written out in words for the message to sink in. In the poem “He Worried about it” the message just hits you in the face. The poem is built up very well. Firstly, the lines rhyme and secondly, after each line come the words “And he worried about it” which gives the rhythm of the poem reason to halt.The sun's heat will give out in ten million years more—And he worried about it.It will sure give out then, if it doesn't before—And he worried about it.That line repeats itself over and over again. It increases the worry time by time, in every paragraph, after every line these words are repeated. One expects to see them already. It creates a ripple of worry. Then in the last paragraph, one assumes to see the same structure continuing, but is surprised when instead the reader is hit by the phrase: “And he didn’t worry about it”. It makes the reader come to a sudden halt and see the message of the poem on his own, no need for any further explanations. Foss rebukes all of us worriers, he hints that we should worry about the present. He tells us about the protagonist who just sits silently his hard-working wife and daughter and points how he does not worry about it at all. Foss makes the reader aware of human’s fault, displaying how people can worry unnecessarily about the future without focusing on the current matter, which would be so much more beneficial. Throughout his poem, Foss gives over a feeling of “look at you, worrying for naught about what is yet to happen, the unknown future you cannot change anyway, while so much troubles you right now which you could try making a difference in”. Foss manages to bring every reader to think that maybe I do the same thing and try to change for the better. That’s why this poem comes across so well. Because each and every one can relate to it in his own way. Sometimes we just need a reminder to let us know that all the things we worry about don’t make a difference in our daily lives, we need to keep our mind focused onto the present.
Comparing this poem with a similar structured poem from John Godfrey Saxe: “Blind Men and the Elephant” we can once more see how well Foss has written this poem in comparison to many others. The poem “Blind Men and the Elephant” also discusses an issue that the human race has had for years and still has. The problem of having to consult with one another. The poem is about Blind men who each get to touch part of an elephant, trying to describe what it is. They all get it wrong and cannot figure out what it really is. The only way this would be possible, is by discussing it together. It brings down a nice message that no one has the full picture and one cannot live by himself. But just through reading that poem one is not particularly inspired. One understands its depth only once the last paragraph is read, which actually writes out the moral of the story. Which is not needed in “He Worried About It”. The poem speaks in itself.
Looking at the external elements of that poem we can understand why Sam Walter Foss wrote “He Worried About It”. He did not have a very easy youth. He was orphaned by his mother at the mere age of four. He then worked on his father’s farm only later he became librarian and started writing poems in Newspapers. This particular poem was published in 1895 , when Foss was in his late thirties. Foss didn’t live in easy times. He lived during the times of the Reconstruction Era, the Gilded Age, and the Progressive Era. Those became eras of poverty. In those times there were millions of European immigrants coming to Amerika which really lead to overcrowded cities, no space and much shortage. This probably led Sam Walter Foss to write this poem:And the earth will become much too small for the race—And he worried about it—When we'll pay thirty dollars an inch for pure space—And he worried about it.The earth will be crowded so much, without doubt,That there won't be room for one's tongue to stick out.Because of the mass immigration, people really did start to worry about space. During that time there also was major industrialisation which firstly had machines replace people, which led to many people being jobless and secondly needed lots of fuel . That’s possibly what Foss indicated to in the phrase:And in less than ten thousand years, there's no doubt—And he worried about it—Our supply of lumber and coal will give out—And he worried about it.What will we do when everything will be used up and there will be no more space?
In conclusion, although all these questions and worries the man in the poem asks were justified during that time, still Foss wants to teach us this important lesson. There is no point in worrying about the future, we cannot change it, we are not in control of all these major things. So why worry? It just makes us stressed and sad. But we should make sure to concentrate on the problems which face us daily, the little stuff in what we do have a say, the things we can make a difference in. That way we will live our lives in a much calmer and more productive way.
