Heart Of Gold Poem Analysis

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Heart of Gold is a poem Heart of Gold is about a man- we’ll just say it’s Neil Young himself for the convenience of giving him a name- who feels like he is running out of time to become who he really wants to be. He feels like he’s gone through his whole life, but not had enough good things come out of it. He’s getting old. Most of his life has passed by and he feels he is running out of time and wanting to be a better person and be content with himself. Throughout his whole life, he’s searched for meaning and virtue in himself but hasn’t achieved it. He wants to have had a life that has brought good to the world and had some value before it’s too late. He wants peace within himself and to know that he is a good, genuine, golden person. Heart …show more content…

Henry Flemming is very young and not running out of time at all. Neil is getting old and doesn’t have his whole life ahead of him or time to waste. He also seems to have been looking for his “heart of gold” his whole life and somehow just hasn’t been able to get the virtues he desires while Flemming seems to find the contentedness he was needing in a fairly short period of time, at a young age, and by the end of the book while Young does not improve despite his efforts. Not to say that he didn’t obviously have major struggles and some really powerful and hard experiences, but this journey of self discovery seemed to come really quickly and without as much conscious effort. Neil is also very open with where he falls short while Henry spent a while in blatant denial of the fact that he really needed to change. He only seemed to realize his problem after it was already in the process of being solved. It still showed that he wasn’t happy with who he was and wanted to change in the way he constantly lied and tried to make himself out differently, even if he refused to acknowledge what he was doing for a while. The main difference between the two is the conscious effort. Neil knows where he falls short and tries to improve throughout his whole life. Henry is in denial but subconsciously tries to improve and ends up changing for the better in the

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