Stanzas 1 and 2

“It's like This” begins by introducing what the speaker of this poem refers to as “the man.” He “rises from bed” and begins his day, not of his own free will but by a cord that is wound around his neck and is pulled “tighter and tighter” until the man is disturbed enough by it that he awakens. The speaker makes no comment concerning how the man feels about this situation. He does not mention any anxiety or frustration or anger. The man in the poem merely seems to accept the cord's existence as something he has to tolerate without complaint, as if it is a part of him.

In the second stanza, the man “greets his family,” but there is no sense of his acknowledging them or of their acknowledging him. The speaker mentions the family only in relationship to the man's “looking for himself...