The Poetry of Gertrude Stein

I recently read in my textbook a collection of poems by Gertrude Stein. The poem that made the most impression on me was entitled “A Time to Eat”. As with the rest of Stein’s poems, a direct meaning is hard to determine based on the words alone. However, I have attempted to analyze the poem and determine my own meaning. To me, the poem uses the adjectives “pleasant, simple, habitual, tyrannical, authorized, educated, resumed, and articulate” to describe various groups of people each sitting at different tables. One table is filled with educated scholars; very articulate orators surround another, and so on. The final phrase in the poem “This is not tardy” then means that eating is not sluggish, that each table eats their meals with haste so that each member at the table may continue on with their busy lives.