In the collection of writings called Life Studies, Robert Lowell has a more cynical approach to his poetry with underlining melancholy tones. Most of his work draws upon some event or time in his own life. His poem, For Sale, is the perfect example of a display of a mournful time in his life that he expressed through his writing. Through this poem Lowell lets the reader walk in his shoes, but only for a moment, to catch a glimpse of how he feels about death and how others in his life feel about the subject as well.
The first lines of the poem are describing a particular person. He writes, “Poor sheepish plaything” (Lowell, 81) which could possibly mean poor in spirit, sheepish meaning shame or lack of self-confidence, and plaything meaning …show more content…
After reading the lines- “Ready, afraid of living alone till eighty, mother mooned in a window.” (Lowell, 81) I had the overwhelming feeling of complete sadness. This line in particular has a way of making me step back and look not only at my future back at the future of my mother and all the mothers in existence. The widow looks out the window in a lifeless manner, afraid but ready because she knows that she is going to live by herself up until old age. To me, this seems to be almost every married woman’s nightmare. I think this line has a universal message in it referring to the death of anyone close to us, that although we feel lifeless we must continue out of our lives even if we feel as though we cannot. This line makes me feel somewhat depressed at the thought of losing someone I love let alone losing my future husband. The concluding line of the poem states, “As if she had stayed on a train one stop past her destination.” I believe this line in particular describes exactly how the now husbandless wife is feeling. When you go one stop past your final destination it sometimes catches you off guard leaving you even idle as though the moment happened in a blink of an eye. It seems to me that this is exactly how the wife is feeling from the loss her of husband. Lowell does an excellent job at connecting the reader to the poem just on the fact alone that death connects everyone in some way or another. The …show more content…
In the sections that show Lowell he seems to appear emotionless. In one of the letters he wrote, he explains that his only escape seems to be through writing where he shares his feelings that he is unable to express outwardly. Each person whom describes Lowell uses adjectives such as pain and suffering to really demonstrate what he was feeling throughout his lifetime. All of Lowell’s work is a direct reflection of his personality and the mountains that he endured throughout his lifetime. This description of Lowell directs back to his poem For Sale because it shows the roots of his unhappiness, which possibly came from his father dying, or the lack of relationship that he and his father had. He as well reveals some of the shared pain that he is feeling with his mother whom he had never truly been fond of. Through his poem we see the sadness that he endured which echoes throughout his documentary and also through the other poems that he had written during his
The first lines of the poem are describing a particular person. He writes, “Poor sheepish plaything” (Lowell, 81) which could possibly mean poor in spirit, sheepish meaning shame or lack of self-confidence, and plaything meaning …show more content…
After reading the lines- “Ready, afraid of living alone till eighty, mother mooned in a window.” (Lowell, 81) I had the overwhelming feeling of complete sadness. This line in particular has a way of making me step back and look not only at my future back at the future of my mother and all the mothers in existence. The widow looks out the window in a lifeless manner, afraid but ready because she knows that she is going to live by herself up until old age. To me, this seems to be almost every married woman’s nightmare. I think this line has a universal message in it referring to the death of anyone close to us, that although we feel lifeless we must continue out of our lives even if we feel as though we cannot. This line makes me feel somewhat depressed at the thought of losing someone I love let alone losing my future husband. The concluding line of the poem states, “As if she had stayed on a train one stop past her destination.” I believe this line in particular describes exactly how the now husbandless wife is feeling. When you go one stop past your final destination it sometimes catches you off guard leaving you even idle as though the moment happened in a blink of an eye. It seems to me that this is exactly how the wife is feeling from the loss her of husband. Lowell does an excellent job at connecting the reader to the poem just on the fact alone that death connects everyone in some way or another. The …show more content…
In the sections that show Lowell he seems to appear emotionless. In one of the letters he wrote, he explains that his only escape seems to be through writing where he shares his feelings that he is unable to express outwardly. Each person whom describes Lowell uses adjectives such as pain and suffering to really demonstrate what he was feeling throughout his lifetime. All of Lowell’s work is a direct reflection of his personality and the mountains that he endured throughout his lifetime. This description of Lowell directs back to his poem For Sale because it shows the roots of his unhappiness, which possibly came from his father dying, or the lack of relationship that he and his father had. He as well reveals some of the shared pain that he is feeling with his mother whom he had never truly been fond of. Through his poem we see the sadness that he endured which echoes throughout his documentary and also through the other poems that he had written during his