“It Ain’t What You Do, It’s What It Does To You” is a poem written by Simon Armitage. In his poem, which is written in the first person, the poet reflects back on his life. He looks at the various things he could have done in his life but never did. For example, he has “not bummed across America,” nor has he “padded through the Taj Mahal.” Instead, he lived a fairly sad life in Manchester.

The poem is written in five stanzas. Each stanza consists of four lines, which makes the poem at first appear like a fairly traditional and conventional poem. However, when looking at it more closely, one quickly realizes that there is no rhyme scheme present in this poem at all. It is written in free verse, which means that there is no identifiable rhythm pattern or rhyme scheme.

Throughout the first four stanzas of the poem, the author describes first what he could have done in his life but didn’t do. Then he contrasts this with providing information about what his life was really like. The poet’s actual life is described very negatively by comparison to what he could have done. For example, we learn that instead of traveling through America, he “lived with thieves.” Instead of visiting the Taj Mahal, he “skimmed flat stones.” The last stanza then brings the previous stanzas together, as we find out what the author’s opinion about his life is. In the fifth stanza, the author describes a “tightness in the throat,” which presumably is caused by the fact that he feels restricted in his current life. The author calls this feeling a “sense of something else.”

Interestingly, the poem is written without the use of any particularly poetic language. Instead, Armitage uses language commonly used in everyday life. Colloquialisms—for example, “bummed across America”—help to make this poem sounds more authentic. It helps the reader to identify with it.