Poem [Lana Turner has collapsed!] Language and Communication Quotes

In these lines, the speaker and his companion have an argument about the weather. This argument is silly, for sure, but it's an example of private speech between people who know each other well. It's probably not all that interesting to anyone besides the two of them, but it seems important to them all the same.

Unlike the private argument in the earlier lines, this line is public speech. It's a newspaper headline, intended for a mass audience, as opposed to an intimate audience of one. Think about the differences here between private speech with a friend or loved one and public speech for mass consumption.

Here the speaker makes an apostrophe to Lana Turner (see "Symbolism, Imagery, Wordplay"). He talks to her as if she can actually hear him – which, of course, she can't. Is this private speech or public speech? Why does the speaker say "we" instead of "I"?