Solitude
It's very dark today; through the rain,
A simple statement that gives off a mood. It instantly gives gravity to the situation by using the word dark. However, the use of a semicolon makes you pause, but not stop entirely. The darkness is not a permanent situation. Rain is used further establish the dreary mood, could be the cause of the darkness, or emphasizes the darkness of the day.
the mountain isn't visible. The only sound
The mood present, the condition, is so heavy that is blocks an ever present sight, the mountain. Sound is the last word in this line and has no punctuation. This one sound continues forever, echoing.
is rain, driving life underground.
The sound is endless from the previous line. The sound of rain is something that continues, but maybe not the rain itself. The comma makes the reader pause at rain. Is the sound of rain, the memory of the sound, infinite even though the actuality of rain is only conditional?
Life, a representation of time or the ability to change, is forced underground by the rain. Underground is a word that can serve as shelter for Life until the rain lifts or as a grave, a place for Life to die for a time.
And with the rain, cold comes.
The reader must pause at the word rain again. The use of commas right after the word rain lend the word not only significance as a symbol, but weight. Cold is another negative association, much like darkness was used with rain in the beginning of the poem. Cold suggests isolation and draws a direct relationship between the title, Solitude, and rain.
There will be no moon tonight, no stars.
Like the mountain, the moon and stars are used as landmarks. They are ever present sights that one would see in the evening, but the rain is so heavy and it is so dark out that even these sources of potential comfort are blocked. Both also provide light, which is unable to shine through the rain and lift the darkness of the situation.
The wind rose at night;
The night is already cold, dark, and without comfort. The wind is a representation of an invisible and uncontrollable force. The wind rising at such a time is significant.
all morning it lashed against the wheat--
The word lashing is used to denote brutality or punishment.
at noon it ended. But the storm went on,
Noon could be the halfway point in the day. The point at which things could turn around and start anew from the previous day of darkness, rain, and cold. The wind, violence has stopped, but the whole of the problem continues.
soaking the dry fields, then flooding them--
Soaking the fields is not presented as a problem. The fields are dry, apparently in need of water. Water, a life giving liquid, however floods the fields. Too much of something good is disastrous. Something that is life giving, by having too much of it at once, has killed all life present in the fields.
The earth has vanished.
Home, everything that we know, has disappeared. Much like the mountain, moon, and stars. These things that are easily identifiable are still there, but inaccessible.
There's nothing to see, only the rain
The placement of the comma makes you pause. A sort of hopelessness descends, as the only thing to see after the pause is the rain. A relationship is drawn between the only sound and the only sight in the poem being the rain. The rain a source of depression, oppression, isolation, futility, etc.
gleaming against the dark windows.
There is an absence of light throughout the poem. The sun is never mentioned. The moon and stars are blocked by the rain. However, whatever the source of light is present only serves to bring attention to the rain. The reader is placed inside, looking out of dark windows.
This is the resting place, where nothing moves--
This is a word that could imply a physical place. Inside, in darkness, is the final place. Or, a metaphorical meaning that emotionally this is the final frontier for the self. Lost, alienated, alone consciousness at its final stages ends up here. Resting place, in this context, conveys a place to die or finish rather than a point to recoup and move on from.
Now we return to what we were,
A sense of time is present again in ?now.? The first mention of persons is made. We indicates that the reader, along with the author and maybe the whole of humanity, is in this situation. The comma again indicates a pause, that returning might be conditional. The return is not final, nor is it an ongoing journey of returning to what we were.
animals living in the darkness
A return to primordial times. We are not granted consciousness. We are limited to our base natures and survival by using the word animal. Darkness is present throughout the poem. Darkness also lacks any punctuation. The darkness, like the rain, is something that continues forever.
without language or vision--
In the darkness, as animals, we lack the ability to communicate. I think we lack the ability to communicate with each other and ourselves. The ability to communicate, and how we communicate, is something that is used to define the human animal from the rest of the animal kingdom.
The absence of vision is both physical and metaphorical. The lack of physical sight limits us from physically moving on from such a dark place. The lack of metaphorical vision binds our capabilities as individuals, a society, and as a species. The lack of vision could be a lack of insight, or enlightenment while bound in the dark. In such a state, we cannot move on from the darkness in our psyche.
Nothing proves I'm alive.
If I have no inner dialogue with myself or a dialogue with others what makes me real? What does existence mean without the ability to gain enlightenment or at the least move and progress from the point of origin?
In the darkness and rain, time has lost its relevance. There is nothing concrete to prove existence. Time is what makes life relevant. The finite nature of human life is irrelevant when the passage of time comes to a stand still. There is no hope of moving on from the darkness, nor for the darkness to come to an end with death. It becomes the worst moment to be caught in, and that is what allows the realization, ?Nothing proves I'm alive.? can be made.
There is only the rain, the rain is endless.
The rain, with its layers of meaning, is the only way of existence. It is a state of consciousness that holds the reader in one state of mind. This state of misery, isolation, coldness, and darkness is endless. The period at the end is finality. There is no moving from this state of mind and it is a state of mind that is all consuming.
It's very dark today; through the rain,
A simple statement that gives off a mood. It instantly gives gravity to the situation by using the word dark. However, the use of a semicolon makes you pause, but not stop entirely. The darkness is not a permanent situation. Rain is used further establish the dreary mood, could be the cause of the darkness, or emphasizes the darkness of the day.
the mountain isn't visible. The only sound
The mood present, the condition, is so heavy that is blocks an ever present sight, the mountain. Sound is the last word in this line and has no punctuation. This one sound continues forever, echoing.
is rain, driving life underground.
The sound is endless from the previous line. The sound of rain is something that continues, but maybe not the rain itself. The comma makes the reader pause at rain. Is the sound of rain, the memory of the sound, infinite even though the actuality of rain is only conditional?
Life, a representation of time or the ability to change, is forced underground by the rain. Underground is a word that can serve as shelter for Life until the rain lifts or as a grave, a place for Life to die for a time.
And with the rain, cold comes.
The reader must pause at the word rain again. The use of commas right after the word rain lend the word not only significance as a symbol, but weight. Cold is another negative association, much like darkness was used with rain in the beginning of the poem. Cold suggests isolation and draws a direct relationship between the title, Solitude, and rain.
There will be no moon tonight, no stars.
Like the mountain, the moon and stars are used as landmarks. They are ever present sights that one would see in the evening, but the rain is so heavy and it is so dark out that even these sources of potential comfort are blocked. Both also provide light, which is unable to shine through the rain and lift the darkness of the situation.
The wind rose at night;
The night is already cold, dark, and without comfort. The wind is a representation of an invisible and uncontrollable force. The wind rising at such a time is significant.
all morning it lashed against the wheat--
The word lashing is used to denote brutality or punishment.
at noon it ended. But the storm went on,
Noon could be the halfway point in the day. The point at which things could turn around and start anew from the previous day of darkness, rain, and cold. The wind, violence has stopped, but the whole of the problem continues.
soaking the dry fields, then flooding them--
Soaking the fields is not presented as a problem. The fields are dry, apparently in need of water. Water, a life giving liquid, however floods the fields. Too much of something good is disastrous. Something that is life giving, by having too much of it at once, has killed all life present in the fields.
The earth has vanished.
Home, everything that we know, has disappeared. Much like the mountain, moon, and stars. These things that are easily identifiable are still there, but inaccessible.
There's nothing to see, only the rain
The placement of the comma makes you pause. A sort of hopelessness descends, as the only thing to see after the pause is the rain. A relationship is drawn between the only sound and the only sight in the poem being the rain. The rain a source of depression, oppression, isolation, futility, etc.
gleaming against the dark windows.
There is an absence of light throughout the poem. The sun is never mentioned. The moon and stars are blocked by the rain. However, whatever the source of light is present only serves to bring attention to the rain. The reader is placed inside, looking out of dark windows.
This is the resting place, where nothing moves--
This is a word that could imply a physical place. Inside, in darkness, is the final place. Or, a metaphorical meaning that emotionally this is the final frontier for the self. Lost, alienated, alone consciousness at its final stages ends up here. Resting place, in this context, conveys a place to die or finish rather than a point to recoup and move on from.
Now we return to what we were,
A sense of time is present again in ?now.? The first mention of persons is made. We indicates that the reader, along with the author and maybe the whole of humanity, is in this situation. The comma again indicates a pause, that returning might be conditional. The return is not final, nor is it an ongoing journey of returning to what we were.
animals living in the darkness
A return to primordial times. We are not granted consciousness. We are limited to our base natures and survival by using the word animal. Darkness is present throughout the poem. Darkness also lacks any punctuation. The darkness, like the rain, is something that continues forever.
without language or vision--
In the darkness, as animals, we lack the ability to communicate. I think we lack the ability to communicate with each other and ourselves. The ability to communicate, and how we communicate, is something that is used to define the human animal from the rest of the animal kingdom.
The absence of vision is both physical and metaphorical. The lack of physical sight limits us from physically moving on from such a dark place. The lack of metaphorical vision binds our capabilities as individuals, a society, and as a species. The lack of vision could be a lack of insight, or enlightenment while bound in the dark. In such a state, we cannot move on from the darkness in our psyche.
Nothing proves I'm alive.
If I have no inner dialogue with myself or a dialogue with others what makes me real? What does existence mean without the ability to gain enlightenment or at the least move and progress from the point of origin?
In the darkness and rain, time has lost its relevance. There is nothing concrete to prove existence. Time is what makes life relevant. The finite nature of human life is irrelevant when the passage of time comes to a stand still. There is no hope of moving on from the darkness, nor for the darkness to come to an end with death. It becomes the worst moment to be caught in, and that is what allows the realization, ?Nothing proves I'm alive.? can be made.
There is only the rain, the rain is endless.
The rain, with its layers of meaning, is the only way of existence. It is a state of consciousness that holds the reader in one state of mind. This state of misery, isolation, coldness, and darkness is endless. The period at the end is finality. There is no moving from this state of mind and it is a state of mind that is all consuming.
