molly13+The+Big+Wrap+Up

I choose five poems to put under the category of sad poems. Although all of the poems have a sad tone to them they are are presenting that they are sad or upset for a different reason or in a different way. "Mad Girl's Love Song", "Question" and "I like the look of Agony" could be considered poems about a broken heart over someone else who they loved. "Question" is more about someone they love leaving them and how they do not think that they can move on without that person. A line that shows that more clearly is, "Body my house, my horse my hound, what will I do, when you are fallen" Swenson is saying there that even with all of the normal assets that a person would have, without the person they love they don't know what to do. "Mad Girl's Love Song" is about how Plath's heart is broken because she thought that she had fallen in love with the perfect person and it all seems to be too good to be true. Turns out that it was because the repeated line in her poem is, "(I think I made you up inside my head.)" Also, "I like the look of Agony" is about how Emily in a way likes the sadness and the pain that comes from a broken heart because it is much more real then the lies that people would tell you otherwise.

The two other poems I choose are about a different kind of sadness. "We Wear the Mask" and "Sympathy" are more about a persons inner pain, pain not caused by another person, but by ones self. But even those two a about different kinds of sadness "We Wear the Mask" is more about how painful it is to hide your problems from the world. How it would be so much easier to have someone just see past your "mask" and know that something is wrong, but that never happens just causing more sadness. "Sympathy" is more about being openly in pain but feeling trapped and having no way out. Like a bird in a cage struggling to be free but never can be, which is also the connection Paul Laurence Dunbar makes in the poem. All five of these poems are about a persons personal pain, but all on many different levels and in many different ways. From pain being caused by someone you love who has left, betrayed and hurt you or the pain of hiding your own sadness and problem or just being trapped in a cycle of unhappiness and sadness and not being able to escape.

The poem that had the most effect on me was "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. It effects me most because I believe that it is the type of sadness and pain that people experience the most. Sure, heartbreak and betrayal happen all the time but after that happens what's the next step that a person usually takes? They hide their pain from everyone around them, so it seems as if everything is fine. No one wants to be viewed as weak but some people believe if you let your emotions out and let them get the best of you, you appear weak. I know that I have hidden how I am actually feeling when I am upset and it really does just cause more pain. Also I always experience the same emotion that Dunbar is talking about in this, that you wish someone would just see past your act and say, "I know there is something wrong. What is it?" and most of the time that doesn't happen. Over all this poem is just very relatable to almost all people and I think that is why it was the poem that had the most effect on me.