"Postcard from a Travel Snob" was written by the British poet and novelist Sophie Hannah. The poem mocks the pretentiousness and feigned intellectualism of certain travelers who look down on popular (and, implicitly, lower-class) tourist destinations and activities. The speaker, the "travel snob" of the title, displays a total lack of self-awareness as they criticize other tourists for their supposedly poor tastes and ignorance. Meanwhile, the speaker themselves comes across as a clueless, classist hypocrite who fails to see how much they have in common with the tourists they so harshly judge.

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• “Postcard from a Travel Snob” Summary

• “Postcard from a Travel Snob” Themes

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    Snobbery, Classism and Hypocrisy

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-16

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Postcard from a Travel Snob”

  • Lines 1-4

    I do not ...
    ... types—perish the thought.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-6

    This is a ...
    ... like your seaside-town-consumer-hell.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-9

    I'm sleeping in ...
    ... a hundred miles.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 9-12

    Nobody speaks ...
    ... small-minded-package-philistine-abroad).

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 13-16

    When you're as ...
    ... anthropologist in trunks.

    

    

    

    

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• “Postcard from a Travel Snob” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Irony

    

    

    

    

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    Where irony appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-16

  • Hyperbole

    

    

    

    

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    Where hyperbole appears in the poem:

    • Line 4
    • Lines 5-6
    • Lines 8-14
    • Line 16

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-6
    • Lines 9-12
    • Lines 14-16

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 4: “tourist types”
    • Line 5: “peaceful place”
    • Line 8: “great,” “guest,” “house,” “hotel”
    • Line 9: “hundred”
    • Line 11: “sun,” “sangria”
    • Line 12: “small”

• “Postcard from a Travel Snob” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Perish the thought
  • Consumer-hell
  • Two-weeks small-minded-package
  • philistine
  • connoisseurs
  • Anthropologist
  • Trunks
  • (Location in poem: Line 4: “perish the thought”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Postcard from a Travel Snob”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Postcard from a Travel Snob” Speaker

• “Postcard from a Travel Snob” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Postcard from a Travel Snob”

• More “Postcard from a Travel Snob” Resources

  • External Resources

    • A Q&A with Sophie Hannah — The poet answers questions about her writing career.

    • An Interview with the Poet — An interview with Sophie Hannah in the New York Times about her literary influences.

    • About the Poet — A short biography of Sophie Hannah from the poet's website.

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