Louis Macneice’s The Suicide Notes

'The Suicide'

1. And this, ladies and gentlemen, whom I am not in fact

2. Conducting, was his office all those minutes ago,
3. This man you never heard of. There are the bills
4. In his intray, the ash in the ashtray, the grey memoranda
stacked
5. Against him, the serried ranks of the box-files, the packed
6. Jury of his unanswered correspondence
7. Nodding under the paperweight in the breeze
8. From the window by which he left; and here is the cracked
9. Receiver that never got mended and here is the jotter
10. With his last doodle which might be his own digestive tract
11. Ulcer and all or might be the flowery maze
12. through which he had wandered deliciously till he
stumbled
13. Suddenly finally conscious of all he lacked
14. On a manhole under the hollyhocks. The pencil
15. Point had obviously broken, yet, when he left his room
16. By catdrop sleight-of-foot or simple vanishing act,
17. To those who knew him for all that mess in the street
18. This man with the shy smile has left behind
19. Something that was intact.

Louis MacNeice

Context
The poem is about the aftermath of the suicide of a former office
worker and colleague of Macneice.

Notes
1. The phrase “ladies and gentlemen” immediately reduces the
whole scene to a mere game show or carnival, and suggests
that the speaker is showing the audience the interesting
scene of his colleague’s office. There is an ironic tone in
these lines as the speaker is making the office worker’s
death sound comical instead of sorrowful. This also makes
 the rest of the poem seem like a speaker guiding his
audience on a tour, showing what this person has left
behind, whilst showing a complete lack of respect for the
value of life. However, the next line, “whom I am not in
fact/Conducting” immediately undermines the first phrase,
emphasizing that the scene of the worker who had just died
is not simply a sight to be marveled at.
2. Further irony (“all those minutes ago”). The speaker makes
it seem that a long time has passed, but in reality, only
minutes have passed since the worker’s death. From the
speaker’s joke-like manner, we, the reader, are encouraged
to make fun of the dead man instead of feeling sorry for
him.
3. Mystery is attached to the suicide victim (“man you’ve never
heard of”), suggesting that he has lost a sense of
individuality due to the type of work he does, as the speaker
proceeds to list many tedious tasks that have to be done in
the office. The things the man has left behind seem more
important than the actual man himself. Also, in doing this,
Macneice makes us think that we are not taking the
deceased man seriously, makes us take back our previous
laughter, bringing attention to the fact that more respect
needs to be paid to this man’s life. The first three lines work
together to remind the reader of the respect one should pay
to human lives; they are not just shows for us to look at. The
poem then begins listing the objects that the man left
behind, suggesting why he committed suicide. This
sentence of listing is very long and spans 11 lines, over half
the poem, to create a sense of dragging the listing on,
emphasizing the number and significance of the objects that
are listed. The reader pauses after each line, and is forced
to pay attention to and think about the implications of each
and every object.
4. “The ash in his ashtray” conjures the image of something
burnt to ash in the readers’ mind, which could suggest that
the office worker was burnt out from daily office life. Ash
also symbolizes lifelessness, suggesting that the worker has
no will to live anymore due to his work.
5. “The grey memoranda stacked/against him” suggests that
he is not at ease doing his job, due to the word “against”
 which suggests a kind of enmity between the memoranda
and the worker. This could symbolise the way the workplace
at the time oppressed workers and denied them freedom.
Words like “stacked,” “serried ranks” and “packed” conjures
an image of the work towering over the worker and the
worker being overwhelmed by it. This, combined with the
previous line, includes the colour imagery of “ash” and
“grey,” which traditionally symbolizes death and
lifelessness. This could relate to the feelings of the office
worker at the time, when confronted with tedious and
repetitive work, sapping him of life and vitality.
6. “Unanswered correspondence” is work that has not been
done by the worker, which could show that he is so
discouraged by this kind of office life that he is unwilling to
do his job anymore. Correspondence is a way of
communication, so we get a sense that this worker has cut
off everything around him, adding to the feeling of being
trapped and locked inside an office job.
7. We get a first glimpse into how the office worker died (“in
the breeze”) there can only be breeze if the window is open,
so we know that the worker jumped out the window. In fact,
this is where we confirm that the worker has died
(excluding the title). The “paperweight” also suggests a
large amount of work that the worker had to do all day. A
paperweight is typically used when there are numerous
papers on the desk, not when there is just one or two, in
order to keep them in place.
8. Confirms the cause of death (jumping out a window).
9. “The cracked receiver that never got mended” suggests that
something is broken, and is something that put more stress
on the worker, adding to his already full workload because
he must fix it. The literal meaning is that besides wanting it
to be repaired multiple times, it never did. Metaphorically,
this shows that Macneice’s colleague cannot call for help,
and is confined to his desk without any means of
communicating with his peers, adding more pressure onto
him.
10. The use of “might be” suggests that even the speaker
does not know what he has scribbled; it may only be a
scribble and not represent anything at all.
11. Combined with the previous line, “the flowery
maze/through which he had… stumbled” shows the office
worker’s state of mind before his suicide, one of confusion
and trying to find out what is wrong with his life. This could
be the purpose of his meaningless scribble.
12. “Wandering deliciously” offers the opposite idea than
the previous lines, suggesting that he enjoys doodling and
finds it delicious. The doodle, although meaningless to us,
was his only escape from the endless and tedious work of
office life. When the speaker says this, the reader is
encouraged to think about the significance of the doodle,
because previously, the doodle resembled a digestive tract
with no meaning at all, and now, it holds all the meaning.
Our attention is brought to the question of why the worker
needed to doodle, and a likely answer could be that his work
offered him no chance to have his own say or express
himself, to the point where he could only draw
subconsciously.
13. “Conscious of all that he lacked” could suggest that he
has lost hope when confronted which this kind of life and
cannot even rely on his doodle to help him anymore. Here,
he decides to take his own life rather than live on with it.
Here, the reader is made to believe that freedom, whether
by doodling or expressing oneself is vital to life, and without
it, like this person, life is not worth living, and it is better to
commit suicide.
14. “Manhole under the hollyhocks” – a manhole under the
worker’s feet conjures an image of an endless abyss
underneath the worker who is falling into it, unable to come
back up. There is an image of the darkness sucking up the
person. Hollyhocks are a type of clustered plant with many
showy colours, which disguises the manhole underneath it.
This suggests that the worker tries to convince himself that
he can lead a free life with his bright doodles and
hollyhocks, but inevitably falls into the dark manhole of
office life. Macneice also suggests that the life of office
workers with no freedom is degraded with the reference to
manholes. A manhole is an entrance to a sewer, and by
falling into one, a person enters it, a lower level of society to
be in, compared to above, where it is cleaner.
15. “Pencil/Point” is a use of alliteration which repeats the
short and sharp “P” sounds to add impact to the following
word “broken,” which becomes more sudden and dramatic.
This is quite literally the “breaking point” for the worker,
who now decides to commit suicide due to his anger and
frustration.
16. The speaker lists the magic tricks “sleight-of-foot or
simple vanishing act,” to allude back to the beginning of a
poem, creating a scene of a magic show to display the tricks
the worker has supposedly pulled off. The effect of this is
like a joke that has worn off; as the idea of a show was
already undermined by Macneice earlier, making the reader
feel awkward for being in awe of this ‘show.’ This suggests
society’s lack of reverence of the lives of others.
17. Knowing him “for all that mess in the street” suggests
that we, the audience, do not know this man at all; he is just
another office worker who died. This highlights the worker’s
suppressed individuality due to his office job, so much so
that even if he creates such a horrifying scene of “mess in
the street,” his identity will still be ignored by society.
18. Again, the man’s suppressed freedom is shown with his
“shy smile,” which means that as he committed suicide, he
smiled, as if this last resort has finally given him pleasure
and escape from the day to day confinement of office life
and endless toil.
19. Macneice finishes the poem ambiguously, as the reader
does not know exactly what his colleague left behind. The
object left intact could be the large organisations which
restrict one’s freedom with this kind of work, or the kind of
lifestyle which condones this, being so deep within society
that even suicides cannot change it. This is emphasized by
the enjambment from the previous line, making the reader
pause as they get to the final line. This kind of ending could
be motivated by the type of society during Louis Macneice’s
era, which was becoming more and more industrialised and
urbanized, where people’s freedom could have been
suppressed in the workplace.
The Suicide by Louis Macneice is a thought-provoking poem
written to describe the aftermath of one of his colleague’s death
by jumping out of a window in an office building. By seeing the
possessions that this office worker has left behind, the reader
can put together the puzzle of how and why this man died.
Through this poem, Macneice suggests that entrapment can
cause people to lose their will to live.

The poem opens up with several contrasting views of the man’s

death, bringing attention to its significance. The poem begins
with “And this, ladies and gentlemen,” immediately reducing
what should be a deathly scene to a mere game show or carnival,
with the speaker as the host. There is an ironic tone here
because the speaker is making the worker’s death comical
instead of sorrowful. We immediately think that this is an
exciting tour of the man’s office, while seeing the remains of his
possessions, showing a complete lack of respect for life.
However, the next line, “whom I am not in fact/Conducting”
presents a completely different view, that there is no show in
store for us, emphasizing that the scene of the worker who had
just died is not simply a sight to be marveled at and that there is
a significance to this man’s death. The speaker continues to say
that this “was his office all those minutes ago,” The time period
after the suicide is made to seem like a long time, but it is
actually only a few minutes. This sarcastic tone encourages us to
make fun of the man instead of feeling sorry for him. This back-
and-forth switching of tones makes us question if we should take
this man’s death seriously.

The next line suggests how we should feel about this man’s
death. The speaker describes the victim as a “man you never
heard of,” suggesting that he has lost a sense of individuality due
to the work he does, making us feel guilty because we laughed at
the death of someone we did not know, without knowing his
circumstances. By manipulating our feelings between humour
and seriousness, we are strongly encouraged to conclude that
more respect needs to be paid to the cause of this man’s death.
The poem then lists the objects that the man has left behind, to
suggest why he committed suicide. This sentence of listing is
very long and spans 11 lines, over half the poem, creating a
sense of elongation, emphasizing the number and significance of
the objects that are listed. Also, due to the listing being spread
out over many lines, the reader has to pause after every line, and
is forced to pay attention to and think about the role of each in
the man’s suicide.

Interestingly, the deceased man’s possessions offer us a glimpse

of what contributed to his death. “The ash in his ashtray”
conjures visual imagery of something burning out;
metaphorically, it suggests that the worker was burnt out from
his work as well. “The grey memoranda stacked/against him”
suggests that he is not at ease doing his job, due to the word
“against” which shows a kind of enmity between the memoranda
and the worker. We get a sense that this worker feels oppressed
by the tasks he has to do. Words like “stacked,” “serried ranks”
and “packed” conjures an image of the work towering over the
worker overwhelming him, creating a sense of entrapment
because the worker seems to be unable to climb over the stacks
of papers. The visual imagery is made more effective due to
“serried” and “stacked,” one describing horizontal compactness,
the other describing vertical compactness, creating a wall that
the worker cannot get through. Macneice suggests that, it could
be that a lack of freedom is the thing that is oppressing the
worker.

“Unanswered correspondence” is work that has not been done by

the worker, which could show that he is so discouraged by this
kind of office life that he is unwilling to do his job anymore.
Correspondence is a way of communication, and it is
unanswered, so we get a sense that this worker has had all forms
of communication around him cut, suggesting that he is confined
by a lack of connection with others as well as by his work. “The
cracked receiver that never got mended” is something that is
broken, and puts more stress on the worker, adding to his
already full workload because he must fix it. Besides wanting it
to be repaired multiple times, it his call never went through.
Metaphorically, this shows that Macneice’s colleague cannot call
for help, and again, we get a sense that he is confined to his desk
without any means of communicating with his peers, which could
have also led to his death.
We get a first glimpse into how the office worker met his end due
to the description of his correspondence as being “in the
breeze/From the window by which he had left,” The meaning of
this is that he had died by jumping out of a window. Interestingly,
this is the one of only two points in the poem where we see how
the worker died, somewhat reducing the importance of his death,
suggesting that his confinement has caused him to lose a sense
of significance or individuality, so much so that even his
horrifying death remains mostly ignored.

We then come across an interesting object, a piece of paper with

a doodle on it, drawn by the worker just before his death, which
shows us how pressured and oppressed the worker felt just
before his suicide. This is shown when the speaker says that his
random doodle “might be his own digestive tract/Ulcer… or
might be the flowery maze.” The repetition of “might be” here
suggests a tone of confusion, and as a result, we are also in the
unknown as to what the doodle represents. To us, the drawing is
meaningless. However, as shown next, the drawing may have
some very important meaning to the worker, as “the flowery
maze” is described to be something in which he had “wandered
deliciously” in. “Wandering deliciously” offers the opposite idea
than the previous lines, suggesting that he enjoys doodling and
finds it delicious. The doodle, although meaningless to us, was
his only escape from the endless and tedious work of office life.
The reader is encouraged to think about the significance of the
doodle, because unlike the previous description, it now holds
meaning. We question why the worker had to doodle. It could be
that his work offered him such few chances to have his own say
that he had to express himself and relieve his confinement by
subconsciously doodling. This suggests that another type of
freedom people need is the freedom of creativity.

Unfortunately, as all good things must come to an end, this relief

does not last long for the worker. In the next line, he is described
as “finally conscious of all he lacked,” which could suggest that
he realizes how trapped he is, so much so that even the doodle
will not help him, and loses the will to live. Here, the reader is
encouraged to believe that freedom, whether by communicating
with others or doodling creatively is vital to human life, and
without it, it is better to commit suicide, at least for this man.
The next description is very effective in emphasizing how he has
lost all hope, where he is described as “on a manhole under the
hollyhocks.” This conjures visual imagery of the worker falling
into an endless abyss under his feet, with no chance to come
back up. Hollyhocks are a type of clustered plant with many
showy colours, which is described as disguising the manhole
beneath it. This could suggest how the worker tried to convince
himself of his freedom with his bright doodle, but inevitably falls
into the confining hole of office life. The emotions of the worker
at this point are shown by the speaker’s remark that “the
pencil/point had obviously broken.” The sharp alliteration of the
“P” sound adds impact to the word “broken,” making it become
more sudden. Like the pencil which it is compared to, this is,
metaphorically the “breaking point” for the worker, who decides
to end his life due to his anger and frustration.

Macneice finishes the poem ambiguously, mentioning that the

worker “left behind/something that was intact.” This object is
given more emphasis because it contrasts with the “broken”
pencil point mentioned earlier and also because of the
enjambment of the last line making the reader pause before they
get to it. However, we are unsure of what this intact object is. It
could be the kind of society and lifestyle that condones the
restriction of one’s freedom. This conclusion is supported by the
previous lines, “To those who knew him for all that mess in the
street,” which addresses the fact that the worker has left
something intact to the people who know of this horrific suicide.
This suggests that unfortunately, society keeps running even if
people die from their lack of freedom.

In conclusion, The Suicide by Louis Macneice highlights the

importance of freedom to human life. Freedom of
communication, action and creative expression are all addressed
in this poem, a lack of which is shown to be the cause of the
worker’s suicide. Macneice presents how society has changed
into one which condones the confinement of human beings,
which could be motivated by the mass industrialization of his era,
encouraging people to work from day to night. He reminds us
that the most vital aspect of life is freedom, and without it,
people may be driven to commit suicide.