Fear In W. E. Henley's The Waste Places

To write about fear and the overcoming of it is not a new concept-Poe's works thrive on it, and empowering poems like W. E. Henley's "Invictus" teach us all about how to best it. "The Waste Places" by James Stephens is very much the same. Through its use of extended metaphor/symbolism of a lion stalking in a desert, Stephens creates a profound allegory about fear and how to overcome it. It is important to note that Stephens begins the poem claiming he is a "naked man" who runs through the desert, paranoid and fearful that a lion is following him. He describes the lion in great detail, and it appears that he is watching this creature just as closely as he claims it is watching him. Stephens uses all the frightening imagery you'd expect-the lion "crouches" and "creeps", as if he is about to strike and it "stares" and "lashes fiercely with its tail" as if it can sense our speaker's fear. And the speaker fears this fear more than he fears the lion itself-claiming "he [the lion] would follow on my trace/ If he knew I was afraid". But just as it seems the speaker has …show more content…
And this is when we can truly know the allegory Stephens intended-there is no literal lion, there never was. The "lion" is symbolic of fear- a metaphor that makes sense, as it is probably wise to have at least a healthy distrust of