“Lonely Hearts” By Wendy Cope
Glossary:
Solvent: something that eliminates or attenuates something especially unwanted.
Touring: participation in a tour.
Libran: to be a Libra (astrological sign).
Annotation 1:
“Executive in search of something new—
Perhaps bisexual woman, arty, young.
Do you live in North London? Is it you?
Successful, straight and solvent? I am too—
Attractive Jewish lady with a son.
Can someone make my simple wish come true?”
This part of the poem stands out to me the most because the author of this poem is a very lonely, but successful person. Who is confused about his/her life style, as well as sexuality. In my eyes I see this person as a desperate and insecure because “Can someone make my simple wish come true?” if this wish is simple why would you ask for someone to make it true. Are you that desperate? Or are you just that insecure? These stanzas also show that our writer needs new inspiration and wants to explore new ways of life “Executive in search of something new—
Perhaps bisexual woman, arty, young.”
Annotation 2:
“Please write (with photo) to Box 152.
Who knows where it may lead once we’ve begun?
Can someone make my simple wish come true?
Do you live in North London? Is it you?”
This part of the poem also shows that the author wants to explore to find his soul mate by giving them a way to contact the author.
“Please write (with photo) to Box 152.
Who knows where it may lead once we’ve begun?”
Author needs love and needs some help to make it true. We know that he lives in North London because he is searching for his muse. He is very lonely and lost. It seems that every shadow that is cast upon him/her highlight the distance between those around (people around) him.
Consequences in loneliness
What is loneliness? We have all sat there on a Friday night staring at the ceiling wondering what could we possibly be doing tonight, thinking why here, why alone… those feelings brings us right to the poem “Lonely Hearts” by Wendy Cope. This poem gives us an idea of loneliness and desperation. Author uses and interesting word choice, repetition which makes us realize the meaning of the poem, also this poem has an interesting tone to it, and it is like a very proud but a lonely person questions himself. In order to understand the meaning of this poem or at least understand the idea you have to really sit there and read this poem a lot of times. You have to imagine yourself living in the age when this poem was written and in the place where it was written at. “Lonely Hearts” is a poem about a person that is looking for someone special in their life, looking for the one that can meet all their needs. Author asks a question “Do you live in North London? Is it you?” many times so by those assumptions this poem was written in North London. The language is very simple to understand even though it was written in 1986. This poem describes a lot in it and could be understood in many different ways because everyone has their own opinion and views on life.
In first three stanzas it seems like the author is kind of jealous of people around him “Male biker seeks female for touring fun.” So he/she is looking for anyone just to be with “Executive in search of something new— Perhaps bisexual woman, arty, young.” It is very hard not to be alone to share your good as well as bad moments of your life. “Each stanza gives a short description of who the person is and what they are looking for when it comes to love. Obviously, these people are lonely and let lonesome feelings compel them to seek love. The stanzas are filled with desperation as at the end of each either the question “Do you live in North London?” or “Can someone make my simple wish come true?” is posed. Aside from desperation, the poem also gives an air of satire. Needy, picky people who have the “perfect” image of someone in his or her closed mind and look only for that person are seemingly made fun of.”
I defiantly agree with everything that was said in this brief example that was taken from curtisaplit.blogspot.com it is very interesting to hear other people’s opinions about the poem. It is very hard to find someone who will be perfect for you. There is no such thing as perfect. It is especially hard to find someone in two cases one when you never loved before that means you do not know how to love and people just run far from you and second is when you loved once so deeply and you cannot let that person go from your hear. That is when people most of the time lonely because they are looking for either for Mr. Perfect or the same person as they had before, but no one actually stopped and thought about why do u need the same person as you had? If you are not with him that means there was something wrong. This poem shows us this person who is looking for Mr. Perfect from the past and still lonely because no one seems to fit the criteria of perfect.
In last three stanzas we can see that our author is a very successful person “Successful, straight and solvent? I am too” but still very lonely and loveless because he has no one by his side. “I’m Libran, inexperienced and blue” he is a Libra sign that has no experience in life, and blue as we know sad color. “Please write (with photo) to Box 152. Who knows where it may lead once we’ve begun?” this shows desperation. He doesn’t care no more he just wants anyone to be with him, but by “Please write (with photo)” means he has high standards. He needs love to be next to someone to be worm, to feel a heartbeat. “In “Lonely Hearts” Cope writes “I’m Libran, inexperienced and blue, need slim, non-smoker, under twenty-one. Do you live in North London? Is it you?” She shows her readers that the man posting this ad is straightforward. He is tired of waiting for the right woman to just pop up out of nowhere. He wants someone now, possibly because he has been “lonely” for so long.” I totally agree with this statement he was alone for a very long time and spending more time alone puts him in a very deep depression.
Wendy Cope was born in Erith, England which is in North England on July 21, 1945 just like we assumed after reading the poem. She is a great poet. By writing the poem “Lonely Hearts” she confused us about author’s sex. This poem has very deep feelings that many could not show the way she did. Wendy Cope’s poetry is perhaps best known for its humor and wit. She did amazing job writing about loneliness, depression, and desperation, but was she really trying to show that the author was lonely?
Is the author really lonely? Or he is tricking people into believing in his loneliness because he is comfortable in his solitary existence. This is a very interesting fact that a lot of people face with many times in their life. Sometimes people should just take it easy because life is what you make it. People should always stop and think before doing something because it is very important to be sure then to be unsecured and lonely for the rest of your life because sometimes life can hit you and loneliness will become you best friend.
Works Cited:
~~~http://curtisaplit.blogspot.com/2010/10/lonely-hearts-by-wendy-cope.html~~~
Live. Love. Literature
Thursday October 7, 2010
Posted by Claire Curtis at 5:02PM
October 7, 2011, 9:02AM
http://literature.britishcouncil.org/wendy-cope
