Analysis Of Absence By Elizabeth Jennings

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The poem I am writing about is called ‘Absence’ and was written by British poet Elizabeth Jennings. The content of the poem signifies that it is about a loss, either in the form of a death of a loved one or the end to a romantic relationship. How the writer feels about this loss is portrayed by comparing the way she feels inside as being alien to what is going on around her, which seems to be life going on as normal for others.
Themes
The theme of this poem is portrayed in a very straight-forward way, as the writer opens the poem by talking about visiting the place where she had last met the person in which she is referring to throughout. This signifies the end of knowing this person, which as stated previously could either mean a death or
This is shown where is says “And nothing instructed me to forget” because if nothing around her has moved on from her last visit then how is she supposed to. This also highlights the fact that whoever she is talking about was of importance to her as she cannot move on or forget.
Further, in the second stanza, the theme of feeling grief due to a loss is implied again with her explanation that she cannot share the ecstasy in which the birds are singing around her. The feeling of pain becomes more and more prominent throughout the poem and she even questions how everything can go on so pleasurably around her, when her world is so painful.
In the third stanza, it seems that the theme of feeling pain takes over as it mentions that her surroundings seem to change, as though there had been an earthquake, due to thinking of the name of the person she has lost. This again relates back to the main theme of a loss of someone important as her world and the outside world now appear to mirror one another just by thinking about

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