The Theme of Loss in Poetry

The Theme of Loss in Poetry

Provide a sample of poetry from a range of authors each of whom portray

the theme of loss in some way.

Anthology Introduction

The object of this collection is to provide a sample of poetry from a

range of authors each of whom portray the theme of ‘loss’ in some way.

‘Loss’ has been a recurring theme in literature for centuries, from

early poets such as William Shakespeare who portrays loss in many of

his tragedies including the loss of sanity in ‘King Lear’ and the loss

of reputation in ‘Othello’, through to Keats’s ‘Odes’ and into the

twentieth and twenty-first century. Loss is an important aspect of

life and many modern poets find it to be an interesting theme to deal

with in their work. The poems chosen for the anthology show a range of

responses to different types of loss, from death to material

possessions, and each deals with the theme in their own definitive

way.

The first poem in the anthology is ‘We are Seven’ by William

Wordsworth. Although his work dates over 150 years earlier than the

other poems in the anthology, he was, and still is a pivotal part of

the development of poetry and his voice can still be clearly heard

today in the twenty-first century. His poems from ‘Lyrical Ballads’,

in his own words, feature ‘incidents and situations from common life’.

This indisputably incorporates the theme of loss in many of his poems,

such as ‘Old Man Travelling’ and ‘The Thorn’. However, the theme of

loss is most interestingly represented in ‘We are Seven’ in which the

narrator meets a young girl who has lost two of her siblings to

illness. In this poem there is discord between the narrator’s

interpretation of death and the young girl’s. Whilst the narrator sees

d...

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...but when

studied closely it can be established that there is much more at work

in the poem. Williams hints at a lost sense of community brought on by

the introduction of modern transport from a foreign country. The poem

is an emotional recollection for the tram and everything it stood for

to the narrator; the people and the attitude from a time that has

passed.

Whilst this anthology only draws upon a fraction of the poems

throughout the time centred around the theme of ‘loss’ it nevertheless

shows a broad view of the different interpretations of the word.

Moreover the introduction shows how the word ‘loss’ can cause tensions

between two poems, or solely the ideas in one poem itself. What all

the poems do show, however, is that there is no set definition for the

word ‘loss’, nor is there a set way to deal with the theme both in

literature and reality.