Page 56 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit

“Jenny Kiss’d Me”
by Leigh Hunt, page 33

Vocabulary
[none]

1. Who is the poem addressed to?

The poem is addressed to Time (the capitalized ‘T’ suggests it is Father Time)

2. What does the first line of the poem infer about the relationship between the speaker and
Jenny?

Answers will vary. Note: The poem’s first line says that Jenny kissed the speaker upon their
meeting. It does not, however, state that it was their first meeting. Therefore, the
relationship is not inferable, but possible answers may include: daughter and father,
lovers, grandparent and granddaughter, or close friends.

3. What do you believe motivated Hunt to write this poem? Do you think there was more than
one motivating factor?

Answers may vary. Example: One factor may simply be his joy in having been kissed by a
beautiful woman. There seems to be a boasting quality in this poem, too, in his demanding
Time to include this moment on its list of “Sweets.” Hunt mentions his growing old, and
mentions that he is “weary,” “sad,” and that “health and wealth have miss’d” him. This,
combined with his calling Time a “thief,” suggests this poem was meant as a sort of protest
against the growing control time and age has over man. One thing time cannot control, he
seems to be saying, is the fact that he was kissed by Jenny.

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