Loneliness and Temptations

Many times when we are lonely we give in to our temptations. People often fulfill their loneliness by complementing it with some sort of temptation that can fill the void present. For example, if a person is bored or lonely they will often resort to eating to help fill the emptiness that they may be experiencing. All of the works today deal with the idea of isolation. E.E. Cumming’s “1(a,” clearly presents the idea of isolation with its form and meaning. William Carlos Williams’ “This Is Just to Say,” and Louise Erdrich’s “Love Medicine,” deals with the isolation one may feel at times and the temptations that are often utilized to help heal the pain of isolation.

E.E. Cummings uses a specific form in his poem to help convey the content. Once the poem is unscrambled it is obvious he is stating “a leaf falls loneliness”. This statement brings about the idea of isolation. When I envisioned this image I saw a leaf falling to its incurable death as the other leaves hang lively on the trees. This image is a very solemn concept and thought of loneliness. Furthermore, through the poems form the reader is overcome with the isolation in each line. Line six contains the only word in the poem and it helps to contribute to the idea of isolation. The word “one” is supposed to be combined with other letters to form the word “loneliness”. Instead of fragmenting “one” Cummings decides to utilize its meaning to help support the idea of being lonely.

William Carlos Williams uses the same ideas as Cummings in his poem “This Is Just to Say”. The form of the poem is divided up into four line stanzas which help the reader to picture the idea of being lonely and isolated. As I mentioned earlier often times when people are lonely they look for something to fill the void which they are burdened by. In this case, Williams has eaten plums that he found “delicious”. However, despite the fulfillment the plums gave him, he knows they likely had a better use than to heal his seclusion.

Louise Erdrich’s short story “Love Medicine” also deals with the idea of loneliness and attempting to fill the void created by this. The grandfather in the story seeks an affair which inevitably causes him and his wife to drift further apart from each other. Due to the isolation his wife experiences because of his affair, she seeks out a way to make him love her again. She uses a “love potion” to help eliminate the gap and isolation from her husband that she is experiencing. Despite her attempt, her husband makes a joke of the potion, and in her anger she accidentally makes him choke on the potion and die. In doing this, she has created an even lonelier situation for herself. In fact she even believes that she sees him after his death.

Loneliness often affects us all. In all of the works for today, loneliness is the overarching theme. Furthermore, loneliness is often accompanied by a yearning to fulfill this gap.