Pain In Ella Wheeler Wilcox's Poem 'Solitude'
Ella Wheeler Wilcox used a time in her life, reflected upon that time, and wrote her poem ‘Solitude’ to express how she felt during that time. In February of 1883, Wilcox boarded a train to attend the governor’s inaugural ball in Madison, Wisconsin. As the author boarded the train with excitement she noticed a young women clothed in black and shaking with sobs sitting across the aisle. Wilcox took the situation into her own hands and sat beside the young girl to try to console her. When the author left the train she felt down, but quickly regained her excitement as she got ready for the ball and put the incident behind her. It wasn’t until the author stood in front of her mirror while getting ready, that a vision of the young girl clothed in
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Wilcox expanded on this point by repeatedly presenting examples of when society tends to look the other way while someone endures pain. All of these examples the author mentions show that society can’t accept the fact that everyone has their moments of pain. This leads to the final conclusion the author reached when she mentioned “Succeed and give, and it helps you live, but no man can help you die”. “Succeed and give, and it helps you live” suggests that only that single person can control what they do with their life. The author realized that young woman in the train has the ability to control her life, no one else. Wilcox’s poem mentions, “But one by one we must all file on through the narrow aisles of pain”, meaning everyone will go through some type of pain and grieving. Wilcox attempted to console the grieving girl, but in the end Wilcox realized she had no desire to deal with the pain and suffering of the girl, only the desire to attend the ball. Although, as seen throughout the examples in the poem, many people in society will turn their shoulder when someone grieves. Since many people will turn a shoulder, Wilcox concludes that the girl and everyone else in society must be self-reliant in order to overcome obstacles in life, even though everyone will face an obstacle at some
Wilcox expanded on this point by repeatedly presenting examples of when society tends to look the other way while someone endures pain. All of these examples the author mentions show that society can’t accept the fact that everyone has their moments of pain. This leads to the final conclusion the author reached when she mentioned “Succeed and give, and it helps you live, but no man can help you die”. “Succeed and give, and it helps you live” suggests that only that single person can control what they do with their life. The author realized that young woman in the train has the ability to control her life, no one else. Wilcox’s poem mentions, “But one by one we must all file on through the narrow aisles of pain”, meaning everyone will go through some type of pain and grieving. Wilcox attempted to console the grieving girl, but in the end Wilcox realized she had no desire to deal with the pain and suffering of the girl, only the desire to attend the ball. Although, as seen throughout the examples in the poem, many people in society will turn their shoulder when someone grieves. Since many people will turn a shoulder, Wilcox concludes that the girl and everyone else in society must be self-reliant in order to overcome obstacles in life, even though everyone will face an obstacle at some