Enter without so much as knocking

1. Rituals, tradition and continuity

1.1. Rituals

1.2. Tradition

1.3. Continuity

2. The significance of place and family

2.1. Place

2.2. Family

3. The relationship between past and present

3.1. past

3.2. present

4. The transience of modern existance

4.1. impermanence of material world

4.2. changes in society and culture

5. "Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris . . ." or translated "Remember, O man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." shows the transience of life, and how in the global world life is not particularly meaningful, while also showing relationship to the past, and how it was a truth from the local world as well, through the use of latin.

6. Throughout the poem, materialism is constantly referred to, everything is described similarly to a consumable object, including the people such as 'economy-sized mum' showing the throw away nature of the modern, global society.

7. 'Enter Without So Much as Knocking' shows the idea that the life of the character has no impact on the world at all, and is also shown by the form of the poem, which goes through the mans life very quickly, showing how little an impact the character has on the world around him.

8. The series of instructional signs 'Walk. Don't Walk. Turn Left.' shows how tightly bound the global world has become, in comparison with the local world, were much freedom was had.

9. The overarching theme of the poem, is that in the global world, life has become shallow and unimportantespecially shown through the line 'Six foot down nobody interested.'

10. The lines talking about the traffic show how old tradition of being polite and courteous has been replaced by an angry, rude approach towards other people, which also shows how trust has been destroyed as the global world has entered into the local world.

11. In this poem, place and family actually play a very insignificant role, as people and places are just shown as products to be consumed.