Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Robert Southey - The Widow

People can be very cruel and selfish. If there is a homeless individual, begging for somet ype of help or mercy, the right thing to do is to give some form of assistance to possibly save a life. "The Widow" is a poem that tells the tale of a homeless widow that has no friends or family, seeking pity from those that pass her by in the dead night of winter. She had strength enough to ask a chariot and a horseman to pity her, for she was cold and hungry, but they both passed her by.

"Worn out with anguish, toil, and cold and hunger,
Down sunk the wanderer; sleep seized her senses:
There did the traveller find her in the morning--
God had released her."
(pg 72, lines 25-28)

After being passed by twice, the widow gave up. Once I had read the poem through, I realize why the woman decided to give up. From what I apprehend from the poem, everything that the woman had once known was no more. She had lost her husband and her parents, and on top of that, her friends wanted nothing to do with her. I believe the woman had put up a good fight for life as long as possibly and simply lost. If I was in the shoes of the widow, I probably would have done the same thing.

On a positive note, after the woman had suffered as much as she could handle, she was reuinited in spirit with those near to her that were also deceased. Although this is so, I feel as though all of those that passed her by should be punished by God on Judgement Day for not being merciful to the suffering and dying widow.

1 comment:

Jonathan.Glance said...

Mishawn,

Good observations on this poem by Southey. I would have liked to see you contrast it to the parody poem about the knife=grinder, though. Southey's poem us included because it was the inspiration of the parody.