Blog 7: Reading Analysis

The short story “Love Medicine” by Louise Erdrich and the two poems “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams and “l(a” by E.E. Cummings all display an idea of love and loneliness. In the short story, Erdrich writes about a couple who are having problems in their marriage and one of them is ignoring it, and this is deeply hurting the other. In the poem written by E.E. Cummings, he writes about loneliness and what it means to him. Lastly in the poem written by William Carlos Williams, the poem is a note that he leaves for someone who he likely has strong feelings for. All three of these pieces strongly show the concept of love and loneliness in a different form of view.

To begin with, in the short story, a man and a woman had adopted their grandson because his mother had problems and was a dangerous woman. The narrator, which was the kid, grew up in his grandparent’s house. As the story begins, the narrator’s grandpa is stepping out on his grandma. Since the grandma has such deep love for her husband, she is willing to constantly forgive him, even though he is hurting her so much. Finally, the son and the grandma decide to bring the idea of a love medicine into the picture. The son thinks of an idea of each of them eating the heart of two gooses who are in love. In the end, the grandfather chokes on the heart and dies right there. In this story, the pain that her husband caused the grandma drove her to do something that ultimately killed him, leaving her extremely lonely.

Next, in the poem “l(a” by E.E. Cummings, he simply writes the phrase “l(a leaf falls)oneliness.” Since it is such a short poem it becomes hard to go in-depth to what he is truly trying to say. Regardless, Cummings is comparing a falling leaf to the feeling of loneliness. Also, by the way he forms the shape of the poem, he leaves the word “one” by itself on one of the lines. This also points to the feeling of loneliness. Lastly, in the poem “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams, he is formulating the poem into a note. The note expresses his feelings of being sorry for eating their plums. In the poem he writes that the plums were delicious, sweet and cold. This led me to believe that they had a very close relationship and that he was truly sorry for taking the plums.

These three pieces all have a strong sense of the feelings of loneliness and love. The short story leads us to the conclusion of how hard it can be to live without the one that you love. The poem by Cummings compares the feeling of being lonely to a falling leaf and also with the feeling of being one. Lastly in the poem by Williams, he shows his true love and affection for the recipient of the note by writing an apology note for eating their food. In the end, the two poems and the short story really helped to gain a sense of the feelings of love and loneliness.