M.R.+KATHERINE+MANSFIELD'S+HIGHER+PURPOSE

Loneliness - Katherine Mansfield's Higher Purpose

This poem, in a few words, is one of the most depressing, intricate poems I have read in a while. Katherine Mansfield provides us with such vivid imagery through her words, and paints a picture with figurative language. Mansfield could have a few motivations for this poem. One could be just to show what loneliness really is, at least to her. The whole poem seems to be set from the point of view of someone going to bed. We get the sense that the poet feels like the time she is most lonely is right before sleep comes to her. I do not know too much about the life of Mansfield, but we get a bit of insight by looking through this poem. It seems as if she doesn't have a companion except loneliness. Loneliness is the only one she can turn to. Maybe her motivation was to show that so many people in the world are lonely and alone.

I think the poet wanted to teach us a few things in this piece. For instance, she could have been dull in her words but she really conveys lovely statements, which aren't lovely at all perhaps, but the images she creates seem real. She makes you feel the emotions that are behind her words. Maybe in a twisted way she wanted us to learn about what can happen when you are too lonely and how to prevent loneliness. Maybe she wanted us to get ourselves out of the black hole of misery we put ourselves in when lonely and alone. This poem could make me want to make an morbid observation like, "We are all in ruts we can't get out of, life's a prison." But I don't think she wants us to be melancholy to that extent. She wants to help. Loneliness walks and talks. It sees it speaks it beckons it calls it tells it teaches it forces. Interesting idea to personify it like this - it sounds like it's taking over.

I do not know hoe the poem could make the world a better place besides the fact that it could raise awareness about the dreadfulness that is the cure loneliness. Everyday we are fighting a war. A war between ourselves and a war between others. Loneliness has been there through it all. Loneliness held your hand late at night when you cried tears you never wanted anyone to see. This poem can change the way people think about loneliness in just a solid way, and maybe people can identify with it on a more personal level. Everyone is lonely whether they know it and want to admit it or not. If you are comfortable in your loneliness then you have nothing to complain about. The greatest higher purpose in this poem is to tell you that you are not alone. Other people undergo what you do, and other people are there for you. Loneliness is there thick and thin.