“Alone” contains themes of isolation and sadness and confusion; it touched me as I suppose it does most people. At some point, nearly everyone feels alone, unlike anyone else. Poe’s eloquent expression of this taps that core of emotional dissociation we sometimes feel with the people that surround us.
The entirety of the poem has a dual-line rhyme scheme, but the first half of the poem utilizes this uniquely. Poe maintains rhyme, but each line does not articulate a complete thought. Lines hang over to start the next; dashes intersperse themselves, causing the reader to pause. Poe illustrates his feeling of alienation by his use of lines that are beautifully written and paced, but done so in an unorthodox and arresting fashion.
The second half of the poem then suddenly shifts to the classical style of rhyme, with each line a coherent purpose. This shift caused me to see the world, as Poe describes it, as ordered and uniform, yet still no less beautiful. Poe’s style of describing the world juxtaposes his description of his own experiences. His feelings of solidarity naturally seeped into me as I read.
As a last note, I can't seem to interpret the “demon” Poe describes. Perhaps I'm not meant to. The “demon” seems to represent the force that separates Poe from the rest of the world. He does not understand it any better than the reader can.
Very nice way of putting it: "Poe’s eloquent expression of this taps that core of emotional dissociation we sometimes feel with the people that surround us."
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure the "demon" is any one thing. I think it's just the thing that keeps us from recognizing that we really aren't alone.