Once Upon a Time — Important Questions

Wearing different dresses

The poet uses the simile 'I have learned to wear many faces like dresses' to show how people change their behavior and expressions according to different situations. Just as we wear different clothes for different occasions (home clothes, office clothes, party clothes), people wear different 'faces' - homeface, officeface, streetface, hostface, cocktailface. This metaphor effectively illustrates how artificial and calculated modern behavior has become, where authenticity is replaced by situation-appropriate masks. Each 'dress' or 'face' hides the person's true self.

A snake's bare fangs

This powerful simile 'my laugh in the mirror shows only my teeth like a snake's bare fangs' reveals the poet's disgust with his own artificial behavior. Snake's fangs are associated with danger, poison, and deception - exactly what the poet feels his fake laughter has become. The comparison suggests that his smile has become threatening and false rather than warm and genuine. This metaphor effectively captures how far he has moved from natural, heartfelt laughter to something that appears menacing and insincere. It shows his self-awareness and shame about his transformed behavior.

His son

Throughout the poem, the poet directly addresses his 'son', using this word multiple times. The father-son relationship is central to the poem's message. The son represents childhood innocence, genuineness, and the natural behavior that the father has lost. By addressing his son, the poet is not only confessing his own transformation but also warning the child about what adulthood might do to him. The son becomes a symbol of hope - someone who can teach the father how to return to authenticity. This direct address makes the poem more personal and emotionally powerful.

All the muting things

The poet says 'I want to unlearn all these muting things' - referring to all the artificial behaviors he has acquired. 'Muting things' refers to behaviors that silence or suppress his true self and genuine expressions. These include fake laughter, insincere handshakes, meaningless pleasantries, and wearing different faces for different situations. The word 'unlearn' is powerful because it suggests these behaviors were learned and therefore can be forgotten. He wants to strip away these layers of artificiality to rediscover his authentic self, just as his son naturally possesses.