Solitude By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

EMMA BUSH

BIOGRAPICAL INFORMATION

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was poet all her life. She started to write poems at a very young age. Her poems were often conveying a sense of romance, optimism, and a sentimental way off feeling. Wilcox has been rewarded number thirty-two in the top five hundred poets. Many of her poems have even been quoted in movies and songs.

Wilcox decided to write the poem “Solitude” because an encounter while travelling to a Governor’s inaugural ball. Across the aisle was a women who was crying because her husband had recently died. She went over to comfort her and later when looking at her happy face Wilcox remembered the widow and all her sadness. Even though Wilcox might have felt sympathy when she was with the women, she did not continue to share the grief.

ORGANIZATION

The poem solitude consist of 3 stanzas because there are three main ideas. There is a total of twelve lines. If you were to look on some papers there might be twenty-four lines but every two lines rhyme if there is only twelve. It might have gotten separated in order to fit on a page in an article.

This is a lyric poem. Lyric poems talk about emotions one is feeling or could be feeling. The poem “Solitude” tells us about different emotions you feel during life.

IMAGERY

• “Feast, and your halls are crowded” • “For a large and lordly train”

• “For the sad old earth…” • “But one by one we must all file out”

LITERARY AND POETIC TERMS

Rhyme- at the end of each line (if there is twelve lines) and in the middle of the third and seventh line

Figurative language- “You must drink life’s gall” they are not actually going to give you a cup filled with life’s gall. It means that what ever life throws at you, you take it and deal with it.

Alliteration- “Large and lordly train” large and lordly both start with L sounds

Implied Metaphor- in the last stanza it talks a lot about halls and rooms. The house or buildings could compare to all your feelings together and each room represents a different feeling.

SPEAKER

The speaker of the poem probably knows a lot of about the feelings expressed here. They have probably felt alone in times of sadness, but in their happier times have been surrounded by people.

LITERAL & FIGURATIVE MEANINGS

The literal meaning of the poem is that when you are down people do not want to be with you, but when you are untroubled then everybody wants to be around you.

The figurative meaning of “Solitude” is talking about how others treat others in general. The line “But shrink from voicing care” is saying how people will try to speak up but nobody will listen to them. “But alone you must drink life’s gall” means that people have to take the stuff you throw at them and keep it inside. You could compare this to drinking poison.

AUTHOR’S PURPOSE

The author’s purpose was to make people aware of how they treat people. Most of the time when a person is feeling depressed or miserable is when they need others the most. If you push away people they will tend to shutdown even more. So when someone is feeling defeated you need to be there for them and not push them away.

THEME

The theme of “Solitude” is that no one should have to go through anything by themselves. They should always be surrounded by people that love them. Sometimes though you have to be the “surrounder” to make people feel better.

SOURCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Wheeler_Wilcox

http://www.poemhunter.com/ella-wheeler-wilcox/biography/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/dining/reviews/05rest.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Ella-Wheeler-Wilcox

http://albert.tips/in-single-file/