Analysis on "Did I Miss Anything?"

In "Did I miss anything?", Tom Wayman uses a sarcastic tone and allegory to show how a teacher feels when a student asks if they missed anything when they weren't in class. The poem has a double meaning by saying that the student missed both nothing and everything. In the first stanza the speaker is being sarcastic by saying, "Nothing. When we realized you weren’t here we sat with our hands folded on our desks in silence, for the full two hours," which shows how annoyed the teacher is with the question. The next stanza, where it shows the allegory, is somewhat serious and is probably what the student actually did miss in school, " Everything. I gave an exam worth 40 percent of the grade for this term and assigned some reading due today on which I’m about to hand out a quiz worth 50 percent." The tone and allegory of the poem show the true meaning and feelings of the teacher. It shows that every experience in life matters whether it be in a classroom, or somewhere else. The speaker says that the student did not miss anything sarcastically because any moment that a person could experience but doesn't is a moment missed, sure the student could get the notes from a friend but they wouldn't have the experience of learning it first hand in the classroom and that's an experience they'll never be able to get back now.