“The Bean Eaters” is a very striking poem in its mundanity. The focus of the poem is an old couple that seem just like any other – their skin has yellowed in their old age, they don’t eat any fancy meals – they are simply remaining and waiting for their time. Based on the fact that this poem is from 1960, the old couple likely lived through the hardships of the Great Depression and WWII, and you get this sense from just how simple their lifestyle is. They’ve seen the horrors of the world and lived through times where people had nothing, and now they live together with their cheap silverware and hoarded receipts. From the lines “Two who have lived their day, / But keep putting on their clothes / And putting things away” the reader gets a sense that they are just hanging on. They don’t have any real purpose left but living. But they still remember how it used to be.