Poetry

Assignment

By Paridhi Raj
BFT-6
 Alone by Edgar Allan Poe
From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone—
And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—
Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From ev’ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still—
From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the red cliff of the mountain—
From the sun that ’round me roll’d
In its autumn tint of gold—
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass’d me flying by—
From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view—
 Alone

• The major theme of this poem is loneliness and sadness.

• The poem depicts the childhood of Edgar Allan Poe and it shows the dark part of his life. In his
poem, he talks about his childhood being the dark phase.
• In his poem, he has tried to show the kid’s loneliness, how he is an outcast, different from
everyone, how he wants to go and achieve his goals and his ambitions but he can’t because his
own mind has put him in isolation.
• He has used different literary devices such as personification, he personified heaven and the
clouds as people around himself and himself as well. He has used colors to depict emotions such
as “In its autumn tint of gold”.
• Through the art of makeup, I have tried to depict this scenario on my face where the bright side is
the side which has all his dreams, all his ambitions and all his goals and the dark side is him and
someone behind him. That someone is the representation of the isolation in his mind holding him
back.
 Alone
“From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—”

This part of the poem shows us how Poe was different from everyone else he saw and understood everything from a different light than
others were able to see. While everyone else saw the happiness in life he saw only darkness.
In the art that I have presented I tried to depict it by having one side of my face covered in a dark environment theme.

“Then—in my childhood—in the dawn

Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From ev’ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still—”

In this part of the poem, he is showing us how the only thing that is keeping him this way is his own mind.
And that is shown by the little man sitting right next to boy holding him, putting him in restraints.

“From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone—
And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—”

In this part he is showing us how everything he loved he loved alone. The loneliness part of this part is what makes it special almost like his
mind has put himself in an isolation.
In my art I have used the drawing of the boy. The dark side is his space where he loved everything but alone.
“From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the red cliff of the mountain—
From the sun that ’round me roll’d
In its autumn tint of gold—”

Here Poe has used colors to show his goals, his dreams, his ambitions and I have depicted each and every single one of them in the bright
side with the sun and the balloons with the color of red and gold.

“From the lightning in the sky

As it pass’d me flying by—
From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view—”

In the end part of the poem he discloses how he is captivated, his isolation is eating him away and the demon that he is referring to here is no
one other than himself. Heaven here is not the place its more about people and the cloud is him while in isolation and sadness he feels everyone
around him is happy and is in heaven while he himself is in an isolation.
The blue sky in the bright side is the heaven while the still dark sky in the dark side is the cloud. The man sitting beside the little boy is Poe
himself refusing him to reach what he always wanted.