Peter Porter’s “Your Attention Please” reflects the disarray and disastrous state of affairs of the contemporary times. It echoes the theme of death, division and decline as does the poems “An Exequy”, ”The Delegate”, ”The Easiest Room in Hell.”.etc. Peter Porter always juxtaposed the power of art against the degrading powers of applied science and technology. In the “famous and oft-published two minute warning”,the warning stands not as a forewarning for those people alone, rather it is a pointer for humanity in general. It is a reminder to Man who is cutting of the branch he is sitting on. Immersed in a world of money, material and munitions, human values have shown a marked deterioration. In an era of competition, Time and Destruction reign supreme. This becomes obvious when the poet repeats “two and a quarter minutes” and “eight and a quarter minute.” We are reminded of the futility of life as in Philip Larkin’s “Ambulances.” In an ironical stance, “a specially shortened mass is telecast” to signify the corrosion of spirituality. The announcement says that Protestant and Jewish services will begin simultaneously. It suggests, how in the face of death, all communal rivalries vanish into the thin air.
However, only human life is valued at least slightly here, for, people are asked to abandon their pets as “they will consume fresh air.” The Homo sapiens are content with the assumption that the “fresh air” is solely theirs.…
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