Once Upon a Time
• The phrase ‘once upon a time’ is often used to begin a fairytale. It also creates a
Once upon a time, son,
they used to laugh with their hearts
and laugh with their eyes:
but now they only laugh with their teeth,
while their ice-block cold eyes
search behind my shadow.
There was a time indeed
they used to shake hands with their hearts:
but that’s gone, son.
Now they shake hands without hearts
while their left hands search
my empty pockets.
‘Feel at home’! ‘Come again’:
they say, and when I come
again and feel
at home, once, twice,
there will be no thrice-
for then I find doors shut on me.
So I have learned many things, son.
I have learned to wear many faces
like dresses – homeface,
officeface, streetface, hostface,
cocktail face, with all their conforming smiles
like a fixed portrait smile.
And I have learned too
to laugh with only my teeth
and shake hands without my heart.
I have also learned to say, ‘Goodbye’,
when I mean ‘Good-riddance’:
to say ‘Glad to meet you’,
without being glad; and to say ‘It’s been
nice talking to you’, after being bored.
sense of times passed. We expect the persona to tell his ‘son’ an appropriate tale.
• The pronoun ‘they’ is used – we are not exactly sure who the persona is speaking of
at this stage. He continues to speak of a time that has passed (‘they used to’), a time
of innocence when ‘they’ laughed with their ‘hearts’ and ‘eyes’ – when they
laughed genuinely.
• The persona then speaks of the present (‘but now’), which provides a marked
contrast with the past as ‘they only laugh with their teeth’. This suggests superficial
behaviour. ‘Their’ eyes are described as ‘ice-block cold’, an image that portrays a
lack of emotion, reinforcing the idea that ‘their’ laughter is superficial. They
‘search behind [his] shadow’. What are they ‘searching’ for? There is a sense of
unease about this ‘meeting’.
• The persona returns to the past: ‘There was a time indeed’. In the past ‘they used to
shake hands with their hearts’. In other words, they used to shake hands in a
genuine manner.
• The persona again contrasts the past to the present, as he tells his son ‘that’s gone’
in blunt manner – this is underlined by the use of monosyllables. In the present,
‘they shake hands without hearts’. Their behaviour is again seen to be superficial.
However, this time ‘they’ are not simply searching ‘behind [the persona’s] shadow,
but searching his ‘empty pockets’. Their behaviour is anti-social. It is futile as his
pockets are ‘empty’. There is a sense that every man is out for himself in the
present.
• The persona continues to refer to the present now. Direct speech is used, which
allows us to empathise with the persona and creates a sense of immediacy. He
speaks of superficial invites, which he naively believed to be genuine until he found
‘door shut on [him]’. Experience, which comes with age, has taught him hard
lessons. Lines four and five rhyme, line six does not. Why do you think this is?
• Experience has taught him to ‘conform’ to social expectations. He uses two
interesting similes to express this: ‘I have learned to wear many faces / like
dresses’. This simile suggests that there is a ‘face’ appropriate for every social
occasion, just as there is a dress appropriate for every social occasion. It suggests
that it is easy to adopt different faces, as easy as taking off and putting on another
dress. Furthermore, it implies that appearance doesn’t always equate with reality.
The second simile used (‘like a fixed portrait smile’) reinforces the idea that he has
learnt to adopt a false appearance in order to ‘conform’ to social expectations.
• In the fifth verse, he equates himself with those who ‘laugh with only …teeth / and
shake hands without [their] hearts’. Remember that in the first verse he
differentiated himself from such people by using the pronoun ‘they’ – he did not
use the pronoun ‘us’ or ‘we’. He adds that he has learnt to use euphemisms to
disguise his true sentiments: ‘I have also learned to say, ‘Goodbye’, / when I mean
‘Good-riddance’…’ Again, this shows that he has learned to conform to social
expectations.