A Comprehensive Explication of P.K. Page's 'The Landlady' Poem

This essay provides an in-depth explication of P.K. Page's poem, "The Landlady." The analysis begins by identifying the poem's context, including its publication in the Canadian Forum in 1944, and highlighting its exploration of profound loneliness inherent in the human condition. The essay examines the landlady's voyeuristic tendencies and her obsession with her tenants, using imagery such as "sepia" tones and "camera eye" to depict her detached observation. The explication connects the poem's themes to the modernist period and explores the landlady's longing for authentic human connection. The essay discusses the poem's visualistic nature, organic imagery, and the poet's place in the Canadian literary canon. It concludes by emphasizing the poem's relevance to contemporary society's struggle with loneliness and the superficiality of modern interactions, contrasting them with the landlady's yearning for genuine human contact. The essay also references Gary Geddes's work for further context.

Running Head: EXPLICATION OF “THE LANDLADY” BY P.K. PAGE
Explication of “the Landlady” by P.K. Page
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1EXPLICATION OF “THE LANDLADY” BY P.K. PAGE
“The Landlady” was first published in the month of May 1944 in the Canadian Forum.
The poem serves as a tribute to the form of loneliness that is extremely inherent to human being
The poem begins with an addressal to the boarders in the house of the landlady. The
narrator is impersonal as she talks about the impersonal attitude of people who come and go, in
literal sense of the term. The “sepia” color of the air is symptomatic to the color of old
photographs that manage to cover the original colors of the film. There is a stark contrast
between her urges to take something from her tenants and the alienation that is reflected in “the
craving silence swallowing her speech”. The act of “swallowing her own words would allow her
to pick up strands of conversation of the tenants. The inclination towards photographs reoccurs
during the mention of “camera eye” that is used by Page to describe the activities that are being
recording and are in the state of constant flux (Geddes). By letting her eyelids drop like
“shutters”, she is able to record the life of her tenants in the form of “exact” mental images, in a
sepia tone that veil the real subject matter. Her mind becomes an album of snapshots into which
she can indulge herself once their expressions become blank, like that of “zero”.
The works of Patricia K. Page that includes both prose and poetry, always exhibit a sense
of dynamics that express a tension that is the residue of conflict in which the binaries that are
opposite in nature. The opposites are present in the theme as well as the imagery that keeps
occurring in patterns as well as the attitude and perception that is present in her subjects. The
dichotomies of images that are present in the poem are extremely black and white. There is a
striking similarity in the theme of the poem with the beginning of the modernist period. Eliot’s
poetry also explores similar themes of loneliness, and the futility of human predicament. The
speaker of the poem has developed a sort of obsession with her knowledge that involves her
boarders.

2EXPLICATION OF “THE LANDLADY” BY P.K. PAGE
The boarder’s phone calls are always “cryptic”. The landlady fails to catch them
unguarded, “unprepared” and without the presence of “wall/about them” (Geddes). This is
clearly the portrayal of lack of a vulnerable moment that can distinguish the boarders from being
anything but a human. The inquisitive nature of the landlady is established with the use of words
such as “jump”, “dream”, and “tremble” (Geddes). The readers gradually understand that even
with the help of a “wire”, that the landlady uses to unlock the minds of her tenants, the intimacy
is nothing but one-sided. This leads to further discontent as the repetition of her dissatisfied state
is present in the line – “like a lover, must know all, all, all.” The obsession of the landlady is
extremely creepy and weird as she kind of intrudes in their lives. The sense of loneliness that the
poet has attempted to get across to her readers at times gets misinterpreted in the form of
voyeurism. The use of imagery is extremely organic is nature that suggests the power that is in
the form of vitality. The close reference and autobiographical nature of her poetry too makes the
poem somewhat limited in its reach. The use of the various imageries has erratic and the lack of
modulation is not present. Her hopes of catching them “unprepared at last” are futile. The
landlady realizes the her knowledge is constrained, her photographs do not do justice to the
characters for they are only the surface portraits. All that she can do is to wish to look past their
placid face unless she reaches “the dreadful riddle of their skulls (Geddes).” Page has created the
landlady as s steady pulse, a being who is alive, in the world that is completely erratic. Her
yearning for authenticity and the need to get away from “the room of you” furthers the presence
of a cage in which her “self” is restrained (Geddes). The theme of the poem is extremely
visualistic in nature that reflects the break that the poet had taken from her literary career.
However, Page has made a place for herself in the Canadian literary canon that has led to the
establishment of a flourishing literary career. She has been regarded as a true literary and artistic

3EXPLICATION OF “THE LANDLADY” BY P.K. PAGE
icon who is Canadian in nature. She is not only limited to be a poet, she is also teacher,
scriptwriter, as well as a painter. She has also been an extraordinary instrument in propagating
the culture of Canada.
“The Landlady” is the story of every individual in the present society who craves for an
authentic human contact, some exchange of words other than the cryptic phone calls that are
made for getting food delivered at home, at drive through, or at the cash counter where the
“encounter” consists of words such as cash, credit, or debit. All these examples scream of the
plight of human beings’ loneliness in which we are doomed.

4EXPLICATION OF “THE LANDLADY” BY P.K. PAGE
Work Cited
Geddes, Gary, ed. 20th-century poetry & poetics. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996.