By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Warning’ is Jenny Joseph’s best-known poem. It’s become one of the best-loved poems among British readers of poetry, but its appeal extends beyond the United Kingdom. What makes ‘Warning’ so continually popular? Before we offer some words of analysis, it’s worth reading the poem: you can find it here. The poem is written in free verse: unrhymed without a regular metre.