Analysis Of Overheard In An Antarean Bar

The science fiction poem, “Overheard in an Antarean Bar” by Glenn A. Meisenheimer is a poem about how a person of a certain species in a bar is talking to another species about how they personally are not too keen on interspecies mating. Based on the title, I assume that it does not take place in our own solar system, and takes place in either another system belonging to a species called the Antareans or a planet / place named Antarean. Because the title has the word “overheard” this means that the person speaking in the poem is not the narrator, and so the poem is told in another’s point of view. I see the poem as essentially just one big quote or a one-sided conversation.

There are four stanzas in this poem, with four lines each. The first stanza is setting up what the rest of the poem is about, them not being interested in interspecies mating. The second stanza starts to explain why they feel this way by saying, “You have the wrong designs” and describes what I think is themselves. In the third the person describes the person they are talking to, and then the poem ends with saying that these differences “cannot be resolved” and to come back in a million years.

When they say the line “This interspecies mating, though, is really not my bag” could mean that interspecies mating is a commonality where they are now. Because not much is really said other than they’ve been in space for a while we are not sure about how the species feel about each other unless because there is interspecies mating they are, in fact, on peaceful terms. Whether or not the two people know each other are unknown, so they could have just met at the bar or could be