Sorrow and Mystery: A Literary Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Alone”
Edgar Allen Poe often wrote of the gloomy adolescence he lived and all throughout his adulthood. He especially brings out the true sorrow of his early years, which aided in transpiring misery as he matured, in the poem Alone. The poem is pure beauty and is a simple yet direct view of Poe’s hardships; it definitely resonates powerfully with someone who can relate to the way Poe expressed his emotions through the use of the literary elements. Through tone and voice, figurative language and imagery, and style and diction Edgar Allan Poe has created a strong, important lyrical verse impossible to be thought of as less than it actually is. The first four lines of the poem express
Later on in the poem, the reader can see that the structure of the poem drastically changes. There is not a consistent rhyme scheme and the speaker begins asking rhetorical questions. An example of these rhetorical questions being asked by the speaker can be seen here, “Who said the free? Not me?” (line 64).
The occupation of the narrator’s thoughts in Poe’s most renowned poem, “The Raven,” is a woman named Lenore. Almost immediately, the reader knows of Lenore’s death and the effect it has on the narrator. He says how he is full of “sorrow for the lost Lenore / For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore” (Poe 613). It is also apparent that the narrator deeply loves Lenore and is reasonably saddened that she is dead.
Both of Edgar Allan Poe’s fathers abandoning him and never supporting him greatly affected Poe. He never had a father figure in his life to support him or that genuinely cared about him. First, the text cites, “The two father figures in his life were never supportive, which may account for many of his struggles” (About Edgar Allan Poe 2). This explains how the abandonment and rejection of Poe’s two father figures affected him in a negative way and may have been the reason he had some of his struggles later in life. Second, the text states, “Even though John Allan had plenty of money, he only gave Edgar about a third of what he needed” (Biography of Edgar Allan Poe 1).
In Edgar Allen Poe's poem, "The Raven", the author presents the idea that loneliness can last for a life time. Loneliness is expressed throughout Gothic Literature. This theme of loneliness connect specific parts of this work and other elements of Gothic Literature because, it shows that when characters feel something missing in their lives, they tend to act out and do things they would not normally do. This idea also shows how when loosing someone or something you love, you tend to want what someone else has and that you will find that you spend your whole life trying to get that something.
This poem reveals to readers how it is possible to be lonely, beyond being hidden within yourself and forming boundaries. This poem justifies that being in a place of solitude means that you have a sense of being abandoned, but being in the depths of solitude is where confused imaginations of individuals live. Tupac illustrates how being in this state of mind is often frustrating, but being too over demanding of others won’t better the situation. The first line “I exist in the depths of solitude/ pondering my true goal/trying 2 find peace of mind/and still preserve my soul,” is something many people can relate to. People often choose to be alone to try and figure out exactly what to do when they come across a difficult problem to solve.
From not even knowing who he was to being introduced and engrossed in a whole new world which was only known to him and his love, which he now shared with all his readers. The ending of this poem- from my point of view- was tragic yet strangely engaging for the audience. I can only simply accept that their love was not one to be long-lived , as it was forbidden. Although Annabel died in the end I cannot fault the poet, because even though she didn’t live a long life in which I pictured her growing old with Poe, I came to realise it didn’t matter. Poe would still continue to love her as he did before and to me, that was the beauty of it all, that he was able to love her regardless of her death.
The man thinks he is way to young to lose his father. Due to that he pities himself since he is alone. His father left him and the speaker does not think he deserves that. Within Li-Young Lee’s poem “Eating Alone” many different poetic elements are used.
In enduring these complex emotions, this section was the most remarkable part. One of the first apparent emotions the boy experiences with the death of his father is loneliness to make this section memorable. The boy expresses this sentiment when he stays with his father described as, “When he came back he knelt beside his father and held his cold hand and said his name over and over again,” (McCarthy 281). The definition of loneliness is, “sadness because one has no friends or company.”
Through the words reflecting melancholy and sorrow, we can sense the narrator's self destruction due to the death of the woman he loved. As one examines the figurative language of the poem, one finds that its form and
In Li-Young Lee’s poem, Eating Alone, Lee uses many literary techniques such as imagery and tone to develop the speaker’s grief towards his father’s death. The poem is about a son who is mourning the loss of his father in which the fall brings back the memories of his father. When first reading this poem, it is very confusing and does not make much sense. Once the poem is analyzed, the reader can determine the distinction between life and death in the poem, where the speaker is missing the presence of their father. Imagery is a big factor in the poem for the speaker to communicate his themes of memory and loneliness.
As we read through an array of short philosophical poems known as elegies, we can observe that many of these poems embody analogous situations, themes, or narratives. These elegies are often written about love and deprivation but despite their similar content, by juxtaposing these texts with one another, we can illuminate certain points and use one text to enlighten our understanding of another. By applying the information gathered on the narrator’s attitude in “The Wife’s Lament”, I will be exploring the effects of physical separation on the narrator’s mentality in “Wulf and Eaducer”. The perspective provided in “The Wife’s Lament” enables us to peer into the mind of the narrator and gain insight on how the effects of loneliness and separation affect her mental state and thought processes. On the other hand, “Wulf and Eaducer” sets up a situation that closely parallels the situation in “The Wife’s Lament”, but it does not offer much explicit information about the narrator’s mental state and mindset.
Eating Alone. In the following poem Lee is able to illustrate grief, through the tone of the poem and by his choice of words. Throughout the poem, Lee kept
It focuses on understanding the concept of being alone, and somewhat hoping to be able to understand it from the speaker’s perspective as well. The poem is presented in a series
Those who’ve lost a loved one suffer the most because they once felt the feeling of being accompanied and loved, then suddenly the feeling was gone. This sudden change was unfortunately experienced by the narrator in “The Raven” causing him to always only believe in the worst, which led to self affliction. From the start, the narrator’s loneliness stands out because he has this idea that everybody eventually leaves, “Other friends have flown before- on the morrow he will leave me as my Hopes have flown before”. From this moment, the reader was able to tell that this man was using his experience with losing someone to come to the conclusion that no one stays forever, including the Raven. He refused to believe the Raven would stay, even after the Raven “answered him” by saying “Nevermore”, which was assumed to be seen as the Raven saying he would stay.
It even seems as though readers are supposed to view the speaker as depressed as a result of his solitude because he somberly says that “[he] wandered lonely as a cloud” in the opening line (1). Furthermore, the fact that he compares himself to a cloud—something so “high” and distant from the rest of life on earth—leads one to believe that he is in a state of discontent due to his present loneliness (1-2). However, the speaker uses the word “bliss” to describe solitude, which comes as a shock to readers because it carries a positive connotation and is associated with feelings of extreme joy and happiness (22). Specifically, the speaker declares that, for him, “the bliss of solitude” is