My PC is Dead

I am the speaker of My PC is Dead. In this poem I am struggling with my computer which suddenly stopped working. I use this PC constantly for many purposes so the abrupt problems with it was very stressful. The fact that I’m a tech savvy person causes some of the language to be confusing for the reader and that is purposeful to make the readers focus more on what they do understand of the poem. I really was hurt and sorrowful when my PC went down. I stayed up all night to try to fix it and nothing worked. I struggled with my PC and I struggle within My PC is Dead.

The subject of My PC is Dead is a computer that is not working and death itself. This is stated directly in the title and first line of the poem, “My PCs dead.” Although nothing has actually died, death is still a part of the subject because I treat the broken computer as is it was something that was really alive and had died. The subject being an inanimate object makes it so I am able to personify my PC in a way that is accurate to how I feel about it.

A major theme of My PC is Dead is the struggle of death. Whenever something dies, there is a reaction. When a person or pet dies, the family’s reaction is sadness and mourning. When a great oak tree falls and dies, the animals that depended on that oak must find a new tree. Elephants are known to stay near another elephant's dead body for days after covering the body with dirt and leaves. There are these normal things to do when a death is experienced but there is no social normal for a PC “dying” other than simply throwing it in the trash and buying a new one. I built my PC, which I named Queen Anne’s Revenge, and it really means a lot to me so I couldn’t bring myself to just replace it. Within this poem, one can see the struggle I go through with my PC dying and the recreation of it.

I mainly use methods such as metaphor, varying rhyme, irony, and personification to convey my theme. There is blatant irony in this poem. I treat my PC as a living thing and mourn for it like one would for something that was once alive. In actually it, even though I feel it is so, was never alive, it was just working as intended, and then it never died, the components just stopped working. Lines 1-3 shows the symptoms of a dead PC. This is akin to a doctor checking for a pulse or to see if someone still has any heat left in them. “Whirs and beeps” in line 2 rhymes with “amateur’s cheap” in line 4. There is then a new stylistic element of the poem introduced in line 5 with spelling out technical computer related acronyms with my feelings and assessment of the situation instead of the actual meaning. I use this technique multiple times throughout the poem like in lines 17, 27, and 28. I finally resolve the inaccurate acronyms in line 29 explaining the real meaning of PC. Line 2 uses onomatopoeia and line 9 uses language that conveys desperation.These both help to help the reader relate this death to a death they have experienced and form a stronger emotional connection to the poem and its speaker through sensory information and trying to evoke empathy. I make an allusion to Dr. Frankenstein and his monster in lines 18 to 23. I speak of bringing a creation that was once alive back to life. I use personification and instead of using words like, wires, fans, and the CPU, I use veins, innards, and brain to further my point that my PC is like a living thing. I make other minor allusions to other things related to my PC. The examples we see of this are, “soul” in line 5 refers to the game Dark Souls which is what I most commonly lay on my PC, “Black, Black, Blue!, BIOS!, blue...” refers to the stages of booting into a PC but if there was a mishap, “Three lives” alludes to the classic videogame trope that the player is allowed three lives to complete their task, and finally all the inaccurate acronym definitions in lines 27 and 28 refer to the different applications and uses my PC has to me on a regular basis. The final line of the poem, “Introverts without computers”, could, and some may say should, be the title instead of simply using the first line of the work. I use this as only the final line instead of the title or using it as both to make the readers think about how anything can be someone’s coping strategy and be something that helps them with their problems, even a PC names Queen Anne’s Revenge.

-John (Jack) H. Fix