SOLITUDES by Ella Wheeler Wilcox ABOUT THE POET

SOLITUDES by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

ABOUT THE POET

Born in 1850 America poet Best known for her 1883 poetry collection “Poems of Passion”

About the poem • Contrast between positive and negative experienced in human nature. • Happiness is noticed and celebrated, whereas sadness and grief is largely ignored by others.

Main Lines of the poem “Solitude” suggests that although we must bear our hardships alone, we should understand that happiness and grief are part of the human condition and remain resilient in the face of that fact.

Stanza one • Depicts a personified earth and introduces the poem’s main theme of the inescapable solitude that humanity faces when experiencing hardship and death.

Line wise explanation • Line one is the most well-known and often quoted line of “Solitude”: “Laugh, and the world laughs with you. ” Upon first reading, this line may give the impression of inclusion and levity. However, “Solitude” is meant to depict the melancholy parts of human nature.

Line two • contrasts line one with the phrase “Weep, and you weep alone

Line 3 • In Line three, the speaker suggests that the “sad old earth must borrow its mirth, ” or happiness, from humanity's happiness.

Line four • However, line four reveals that the earth cannot alleviate humanity's sadness, because it has enough of its own troubles to deal with.

Line five and six • In lines five and six, the speaker gives readers another contrast between singing and sighing. The speaker claims, “Sing and the hills will answer, ” followed by, “Sigh, it is lost on the air. ” Showing your sadness with a sigh will not result in any answers or help from the world. Instead, it will be largely ignored.

Line seven and eight • Lines seven and eight elaborate on how the earth shrinks away from caring for humans if they are experiencing negative emotions

The Second Stanza

Stanza Two focuses on other humans’ reactions to an individual’s sadness.

Line one and two • Lines one and two create another dichotomy; “men, ” or humans, wish to be around you if you “rejoice, ” but if you “grieve, ” they leave you.

Line three • In line three, the speaker claims that “they want full measure of all your pleasure. ”

Line four • In line four, the speaker contrasts that view by claiming others will decline your “woe, ” or distress.

Line five • In line five, the speaker claims, “Be glad, and your friends are many. ”

Line six • The speaker follows this with another contrast in line six: “Be sad, and you lose them all. ”

Line seven • In line seven, the speaker argues that humanity will not “decline your nectar’d wine. ” The phrase “nectar’d wine” is an allusion to ambrosia, or the food of the Greek gods. The speaker here attaches heavenliness, or divinity, to happiness.