At School we often study different poems when at different levels of education from key stage three, GCSEs and thereafter. When one thinks about poetry the topic is often romantic or historical or simply someone's opinion and experience. There are never any famous simple poems about soap, when I try to think of at least one nothing comes to mind. Why is it that we never have written major poems about the simple non-complacent subject of something we use everyday like soap dispensers?



Imagine if the great works of those like William Blake, Christina Rosetti and even Shakespeare wrote poetry about soap from which they're names acquired such an esteeming presence that still lingers throughout our world today.

'Auguries of Innocence' would while maintaining page one became be incredibly different if Blake's empowering first line was in fact

'To see a world in a bar of soap'

And following;

'And a heaven in a soapy lather,

Hold infinity in your freshly cleaned hands,

And eternity in the bubbles left after.'

Of course it would not have the same dreamy effect on its readers though more of a comic reaction as to why would there be a poem about soap?

What would life be like if all poems we know and love were about soap dispensers? What if the young maids in 'Goblin Market' (Rossetti) were able to get their revenge upon the Goblin's for manipulating Laura into eating their luscious fruits by simply attacking them with lathers of soap? Literally playing on the idea of washing your mouth out with soap the Goblin's too would learn their lesson.

Imagine if William Shakespeare's 'Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?' too was overruled by inspiration form soap. Picture how the summer imagery would be soapier ones.

'Shall I compare thee to the cleanest of soap?

Thou art glows more lovely and they scent is so fresh:

Bubbles do build a lather on a bar of soap,

But you are more friendly to nature's slow decay to date:

Sometimes too hot the rinse may be,

But you will always choose wisely from the illi range...'

As you can tell it would definitely bring about a sense of better hygiene if only they had the same choice we had to choose the best soap dispenser for ourselves that we could write poetry about. I recently found a competition on soap poetry. Perhaps soap is finally being acknowledged for being a much bigger part in our lives. No one can take soap poetry seriously; maybe that's why such famous poets like Blake, Rossetti and Shakespeare would never step over the brave line to write a poem on soap. Plus they were unfortunate that they were not blessed with the choice of such things as soap dispensers.

Soap dispensers are good objects to write about due to their range in colour, size, make and purpose. Soap dispensers not only make less mess than bars of soap and do not fly from your grasp so quickly but they are officially fabulous poetry subject matter. If only we knew how to make Soap dispensers a less humorous topic!