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loneliness theme in literature
of studies literary analysis
of studies literary analysis
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The Themes of Loss and Loneliness in Hardy's Poetry
Introduction
============
From 1862 to 1867 Hardy worked for an architect in London and later
continued to practice architecture, despite ill health, in Dorset.
Meanwhile, he was writing poetry with little success. He then turned
to novels as more salable, and by 1874 he was able to support himself
by writing. This is also the year that Hardy married his first wife,
Emma Gifford. Their marriage lasted until her death in 1912, which
prompted Hardy to write his collection of poems called Veteris
Vestigiae Flammae (Vestiges of an Old Flame). These poems are some of
Hardy's finest and describe their meeting and his subsequent loss.
In this essay I am going analyse three poems and those three poems
will be "The Voice", "Neutral Tones" and "Where The Picnic Was"
Section 1 - Context
-------------------
Thomas Hardy was writing around from 1870 and gave up novel writing in
1895 after receiving harsh criticism. In those times the laws were
very different. For instance women could not vote at all which could
have made a difference if they did vote. After Emma died - which was
Hardy's first wife he wrote poems that were for her or about her when
they were married.
Section 2 - Content, Tone and Theme
===================================
The first poem is "The Voice". The poem is about his wife, Emma and
how he misses her deeply and every sound like the wind blowing reminds
him of Emma's voice. The tone of this poem is sad which reflects on
what Hardy is feeling because this would mean that Hardy is sad as
well. There is also pathetic fallacy used in this poem as well. There
is also natural settings that echoes the mood of sadness and
loneliness and this is an example of the main themes running through
his poems which is loss and loneliness
The second poem is titled "Neutral Tones". This poem is about a
different woman; the woman that he met before he meets Emma and this
Anglo-Saxon elegies deals with male sociability and the connection between man and his creator, God. Despite the fact that there are many sad poems, “The seafarer” and “The wanderer” are the two that stand out the most. In these two poems both men deal with the loss of social society, and the sense of being close to their God but losing them in some type of way. In the “The Wife’s Lament”, the women also has to deal with the loss of social society and as well the struggle of being separated from her lord, whom is her husband of no choice. The woman is put in a situation that she cannot improve.
Loss and isolation are easy, yet difficult to write about. They are easy because every human being can empathize with loneliness. If someone denies this, they are lying because loneliness is a common feeling, anyone can relate. It’s hard because we don’t discuss loneliness or loss publicly very often, and when we do, we forget about it quickly. These poems contrast each other by speaking of the different types of loneliness and isolation, distinguishing between the ones of loss, and isolation in a positive perspective.
“Death is like a flower growing in a patch of weeds. Even where there is bad/evil the end will be beautiful.” The simile I wrote means that every person is going to through a hard time in their life but no matter how hard or awful it is you will end in a beautiful place called Haven. While reading William Cullen Bryant’s poem I came to the conclusion that we have somewhat of the same views. In his poem he says, “unnoticed by the living—and no friend.” I believe that he was trying to have people comprehend that even if you are unnoticed and have no friends that doesn’t change where you’ll end up in life. Today people romanticize a large number of things one being models. People romanticize models by wanting to be them and look
Thomas Hardy has specific standards which include a negative perspective on marriage and a lonely demeanor. In both Your Last Drive and The Workbox Thomas Hardy was very punctilious when placing each caesura and end stop. In both poems he used the word borough and rhyme to connect each line and produce an everlasting impact on the reader. Whether Thomas Hardy’s purpose for writing poems was an emotional release or to stimulate emotions in the reader, he disregarded any successful marriages and gave purpose to his writings because he went persevered through the relationship
Robert Frost’s dramatic poem Home Burial depicts two tragedies: the loss of an infant and the deterioration of a marriage that follows. The emotional dialogue characterizes husband and wife with their habits of speech, illustrating the ways that they deal with grief. Instead of comforting her in her distress, the husband attempts at every turn to force his wife to cease grieving. The unnamed farmer’s inability to console his wife, who seems to feel so much more deeply the loss of her child, combined with her inability to see any feeling at all in her husband’s actions, contribute to a conflict that seems unresolvable by the end of the poem. But Frost’s diction suggests that it is the husband’s style of communication, not his method of grieving, that is the true cause of the vast distance between the two.
Edgar Allan Poe’s poems The Raven, And Annabel Lee Contrast in many different ways but i'll be highlighting three of them in this paper.The mood of these poems is sad because their true loves die in very different settings and how they handle the grief is different from one going totally insane to the other man being calm and almost a little light hearted about it.
During the early seventeenth century, poets were able to mourn the loss of a child publicly by writing elegies, or poems to lament the deceased. Katherine Philips and Ben Jonson were two poets who wrote the popular poems “On the Death of My Dearest Child, Hector Philips”, “On My First Son”, and “On My First Daughter” respectively. Although Philips and Jonson’s elegies contain obvious similarities, the differences between “On the Death of My Dearest Child” and “On My First Son” specifically are pronounced. The emotions displayed in the elegies are very distinct when considering the sex of the poet. The grief shown by a mother and father is a major theme when comparing the approach of mourning in the two elegies.
The Wife?s Lament speaks movingly about loneliness, due to the speaker projecting the lonesomeness of the women who was exiled from society. The woman in the poem has been exiled from her husband and everything she loves, all she has is a single oak-tree to be comforted by. As she has been banished from all she loves, the tone becomes gloomy and depressing. The speaker uses expressions such as joyless and dark to create a sorrowful mood for the poem. As well as the expressions used in this poem, the setting also creates loneliness. The setting generates a darkened and desolate place which makes the woman feel exiled from society.
Edgar Allan Poe was a man who unfortunately was born into a life full of morbidity and grief. The stories and poems that he created reflect the experience he has with agonizing situations, in which Poe’s dark side developed; his evil reasoning and twisted mentality allowed Poe to develop extremely vivid and enthralling stories and works. Due to not only his family members but also his wifes to passing from tuberculosis, morbidity and grief is present in almost every work that Poe created. From major works such as “the Raven”, “Black Cat”, “Annabel Lee”, and the Tell- Tale Heart, Poe utilized themes such as death, premature burials, body decompositions, mourning, and morbidity to enhance his point an the image he attempted to convey.
Robert Frost had a fascination towards loneliness and isolation and thus expressed these ideas in his poems through metaphors. The majority of the characters in Frost’s poems are isolated in one way or another. In some poems, such as “Acquainted with the Night” and “Mending Wall,” the speakers are lonely and isolated from their societies. On other occasions, Frost suggests that isolation can be avoided by interaction with other members of society, for example in “The Tuft of Flowers,” where the poem changes from a speaker all alone, to realizing that people are all connected in some way or another. In Robert Frost’s poems “Acquainted with the Night,” “Mending Wall,” and “The Tuft of Flowers,” the themes insinuate the idea of loneliness and isolation.
Edgar Allan Poe is considered one of the greatest of his time. He lived with his parents No sooner than his father had left his mother passed. She died from tuberculosis at the mere age of twenty four. Poe and his siblings were by her side until her last breath. He later became the dependent of John Allan of Richmond, Virginia hence Allan being Poe’s middle name. The Allans were quite fond of young Poe as they had no children. Frances Allan was very motherly and nurturing towards Poe which was unfamiliar to him (Meltzer). At the age of five he began his schooling with a private tutor. He soon had a keen ear for music and was able to recite English poems. He would sparsely see his brother and sister from time to time. At age six the family moved to England where Poe continued his schooling. He was considered one of the most famous student and could speak French, Latin and knew a lot about literature. In his teen years Edgar began studying in Richmond schools. There were no free public education system at that time (Lange). He continued to excel in his love for languages. He continued to write poems and would always read them for his fellow classmates. At the age of seventeen he began to attend the University of Virginia in Charlottesville with very little money. He could only afford to take two classes which were Latin and French. He had an interest for math which he could not pursue because he had no funds to pay it. Poe thought that the university was “wild” with students gambling, drinking and fighting. Poe had a turbulent upbringing and his misfortunes are very much embedded in his stories.
Classic literature is timeless and universal. It must enrich the mind, resonate with the reader in regards to human condition and is not limited to a specific period of time; the message must be eternal. A classic poem’s meaning is conveyed in a discernible yet eloquent manner. Letters from a Father and Vespers are two poems that were thought-provoking, both examined human behavior/condition and provided insight to universal truths. Both A Primer of a Daily Round and A Way to Love God failed to inspire further contemplation or spark any deep sentiments.
Examine the ways in which Frost explores ideas about loneliness and isolation in three poems you have studied.
Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English author who considered himself mainly as a poet. A large part of his work was set mainly in the semi-fictional land of Wessex. In 1898 Hardy published a collection of poems written over 30 years, Wessex Poems his first volume of poetry. Emma Lavinia Gifford, Hardy’s wife, whom he married in 1874. He became alienated from his wife, who died in 1912; her death had a traumatic effect on him. He remained preoccupied with his first wife's death and tried to overcome his sorrow by writing poetry, he dictated his final poem to his first wife on his deathbed.
Clarke, R. (n.d.). The Poetry of Thomas Hardy. rlwclarke. Retrieved February 1, 2014, from http://www.rlwclarke.net/Courses/LITS2002/2008-2009/12AHardy'sPoetry.pdf