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Hey everyone, just a quick question.
I am trying to find a poem that has themes of loneliness and solitude, as seen in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. They also need to be of good literary value as i have to write an essay comparing the two! If anyone has any suggestions about poems that meet this criteria, please post! Thanks for your time, it is greatly appreciated.
Hello, amanda, welcome to the forum! The first poem that comes to my mind of very good value, and through a little cheating via google, comes from John Keats, entitled 'O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell.'
O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell,
Let it not be among the jumbled heap
Of murky buildings; climb with me the steep,-
Nature’s observatory - whence the dell,
Its flowery slopes, its river’s crystal swell,
May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep
’Mongst boughs pavillion’d, where the deer’s swift leap
Startles the wild bee from the fox-glove bell.
But though I’ll gladly trace these scenes with thee,
Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind,
Whose words are images of thoughts refin’d,
Is my soul’s pleasure; and it sure must be
Almost the highest bliss of human-kind,
When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee.
John Keats
-----
There is a solitude of space,
A solitude of sea,
A solitude of death, but these
Society shall be,
Compared with that profounder site,
That polar privacy,
A Soul admitted to Itself:
Finite Infinity.
Emily Dickinson
-----
Ode on Solitude
I.
How happy he, who free from care
The rage of courts, and noise of towns;
Contented breathes his native air,
In his own grounds.
II.
Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.
III.
Blest! who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years slide swift away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,
IV.
Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mix'd; sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.
V.
Thus let me live, unheard, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.
Alexander Pope
Hi amanda89,
Welcome to the forum!:)
I would suggest Shelley's Alastor;or The Spirit of Solitude(1816).
I wrote a long essay on this as well.Alastor is an avenging demon.We first meet a youthful poet with "wild eyes" who drinks the sublime beauties of nature and the creations of the intellect.The poet in Alastor ends up dying, prematurely, in despair after searching in vain for his prototype, conjured up in a visionary dream.When he awakes, all of the beauty of the world that enchanted and satisfied him before has faded.He becomes obsessed and travels alone across many wildernesses, and ancient ruins, rejecting any earthly love or friendship(the Arab maid who brings his food, is a key factor to note earlier on), until he fails to find his "veiled soul-ideal love" which is actually a feminine reflection of himself.The "veiled maiden vision of his dream" is like the idealistic poet, but only a female.She sings first of knowledge and truth and virtue, then of love, and embraces him.His dream is the death of him.In the preface it warns idealists that the world can be a tormentor if they are always searching for the ideal, but it does not actually condemn the Alastor poet as he is viewed as a victim of the avenging spirits(Alastor means a victim of an avenging spirit in Greek) and "innocent", unaware of those around him, and caught up his desperate quest.The Alastor poet is possessed with all positive attributes-young, good, gentle, beautiful, nobel, genius, but fades away- forever in solitude- as death creeps near.Alas!
Anyway, you should check it out-it's a really interesting poem to study.Good luck with your essay.Bye!
I am trying to find songs that relate to the main theme or idea in each of the 20 chapters of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez.
Especially for Chapter 1,2,3. I need help finding the songs that relate.
Help is appreciated :yawnb: