Poem: Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

THE POEM

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was born in November 5, 1850 in Johnstown, Wisconsin. Ella’s style for her poetry is sentimental and romantic. During her lifetime, she was compared to Walt Whitman because of the feelings she has poured into her writings. While her poetry is like that she maintained a very traditional form unlike Walt Whitman or Emily Dickinson. Ella’s autobiography, The Worlds and I, was published in 1918, a year which was before her death. Her most famous work was the Poems of Passion. She married Robert Wilcox, who later after 30 years of marriage died. Ella then followed her husband as she died of cancer on October 30, 1919. 

PERSONAL RESPONSE

I think the poem Solitude is about you being isolated from the world when you are feeling down. You tend to push people away when you are sad. When you are happy though, you go have fun with the world. You throw a party and invite all your friends and party with them all night. You can’t always be happy in life and you tend to feel seclusion when you are depressed. That is why; you always have to smile at the world. 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox did a remarkably good job on putting those ideas in a poem. She interprets the idea of being in seclusion when you are down in this poem but she doesn’t try and make us find the meaning cause it’s obvious enough in the writing itself. The whole world could relate to this because everyone feels down in life and if they say they haven’t then they’re lying. 

Life is full of ups and down and we can’t help but feel sad or happy at times. One day you feel like you are on top of the world and then the next you just want to be alone and you hate everyone. It is also full of unexpected twists because you’ll never know what life has for. Even if we are sad, we have to move on with life or we won’t feel like we are part of this world. 

TP-CASTT

TITLE:
The title is pretty much self explanatory isn't it. It will talk about you being in isolation. You isolating yourself from the world or the world ignoring you forcing you to be in isolation from it.

PARAPHRASE:

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

Weep, and you are alone.

For the sad old earth must borrow it’s amusement,

But has trouble of its own.

Sing, and the hills will sing;

Sigh, it is lost in the wind.

The echoes bound to a joyful sound,

But shrinking from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will find you;

Grieve, and they will leave you.

They want full measure of all your pleasure,

But they do not need your sorrow.

Be glad, and you have many friends;

Be sad, and you lose all of them.

There are none to decline your nectared wine,

But alone you drink the life’s gall.

Feast, and people are in your halls;

Fast, and the world goes by.

Succeed and give, and it helps you live,

But no man can help you die.

There is room in the halls of pleasure

For a long and lordly train,

But one by one we must all go on

Through the narrow aisles of pain.

CONNOTATION:
1. Structure: 4 couplet, and 4 quatrain, Rhyme Scheme - ABCBDEFE, Meter- Free verse, Punctuation - Semi-colon, period, comma, and apostrophe.
2. Speaker: Grief and you are alone, be joyful and you are with the world, Audience: You are in isolation when you are grieving 
3. Figurative Language: Simile (None), Metaphor (Through the narrow aisles of pain)
4. Imagery: Sight (crowded halls), Touch (None), Smell (None), Hear (Voicing care, joyful sound, echoes, sing, sigh, laugh, weep), Taste (Nectared wine)
5. Repetition: None

ATTITUDE:

Idealistic, informative, intellectual, and insightful.

SHIFTS:

1^st couplet (Lines 1-2) – If we laugh the world is with us but if we weep, we are alone

2^nd couplet (Lines 3-4) – The earth has its own trouble and needs to borrow it’s amusement

3^rd Quatrain (Lines 5-8) – Joyful noises the world will respond but voicing care it will not

4^th Quatrain (Lines 9-12) – Men needs your full pleasure not your woe

5^th Quatrain (Lines 13-16) – Friends will be there when you are glad but will be gone when you are sad

6^th couplet (Lines 17-18) – Feast and the worlds with you but if you fast it’s gone

7^th couplet (Lines 19-20) – Succeed and you will live but no man can help you die

8^th Quatrain (Lines 21-23) – Life is a pleasure but we have to feel pain once in a while

The first two couplets tells us that the world does not need any more troubles as it as it's own. The quatrains explains it again but using friends and men for the examples. The last quatrain is for everyone in life. 

TITLE:

The title is about the poem, the isolation of you. The world forces you to be in isolation because you grief and the world just wants to be people who are happy. I mean who would want to be around someone who is always sad or mad, people would want to be with someone who is happy and full of joy. I mean there are some moments in your life when you want to be alone to help you clear your mind from all the disasters that are happening in it.

THEME: 

There are 3 possible themes for this poem:

1. People are isolated from the world when they grief.
2. Joy is what the world needs and not grief. 
3. You isolate yourself from the world when you grief.

REFERENCE (APA-6) 
Wilcox, E. (1883). Solitude. Poem Hunter. Website. Retrieved from http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/solitude/