Analyzing Poetry: "Alone"

Today, in English class, we looked at analyzing different art forms. The primary focus of today's class was analysis of paintings/pictures and poetry. Art tends to be rather ambiguous. It is this ambiguity that makes it so difficult to analyze. I am usually a rather concrete person, preferring questions with right and wrong answers. Unsurprisingly, I find the search for meaning in art work to be a bit of a challenge.

 In class, we were tasked with analyzing a poem or artwork of our choosing. I chose to analyze Edgar Allan Poe's "Alone." Below you will find the poem as well as my analysis of it.

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were--I have not seen
As others saw--I could not bring
My passions from a common spring--
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow--I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone--
And all I lov'd--I lov'd alone--
Then--in my childhood--in the dawn
Of a most stormy life--was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still--
From the torrent, or the fountain--
From the red cliff of the mountain--
From the sun that 'round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold--
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass'd me flying by--
From the thunder, and the storm--
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view--


Edgar Allan Poe’s “Alone” is a very interesting piece of work. The poem, as the name implies, is about isolation. There are numerous lines within the poem which suggest this, such as the fact the author claim everything he ever loved he loved alone. These lines also suggest that the root of isolation is one's own individuality. The poem contrasts physical isolation with mental isolation, focusing more on the emotional aspect.

Poe makes numerous references to nature in his work such as suggesting his passions are from a common spring but he has not taken them from the same source. It also makes numerous references to fountains, mountains, and the sky. This suggests isolation as fountains are separated from the land that surrounds them, mountains are beyond reach, and the sky stands separate over the Earth.