"Happiness is for
******************—what? whom?

The one wish, it is my one wish."

Did anyone else get a very big sense of self-pitying melancholy from the lines above. My thought is that this work would be stronger - in the sense of a more traditional dramatic monologue - without this little dab of introspection.

Savory Goodness:

"Happiness is for
******************—what? whom?

The one wish, it is my one wish."

Did anyone else get a very big sense of self-pitying melancholy from the lines above. My thought is that this work would be stronger - in the sense of a more traditional dramatic monologue - without this little dab of introspection.

"Self-pitying melancholy" covers a multitude of sins, as it were. Yes, I picked up on the melancholy -- this poem actually resonates with me in what it tries to say (as opposed to how well it says it). Yet I'm inclined to believe that the narrator is not so much expressing mere self-pity as expressing a deeper and legitimate longing for something transcendental, something that satisfies in life. Perhaps in this, I am simply being kind. But that seems to me to fit the tone of the rest of the poem.

wr ()()

My thought is that this work would be stronger - in the sense of a more traditional dramatic monologue - without this little dab of introspection.

SavoryGoodness, from the few poems by Ball that I've read, I'd say that writing a traditional poem of any sort, especially a dramatic monologue, is NOT something she would want to do.

Although I don't often agree with the Rabbit, I do this time.

Mary Ann

Hope to see more of you on the PoemsFray, SG.

Hello y'all -

and thank you for your thoughts.

I've rechecked - as you both are a hell of a lot better at this than I - and the entire rest of this poem gives me no sense of a "deeper ... longing for something transcendental, something that satisfies in [the speaker's] life." Just those lines.

Point taken about this poet's aversion to traditional forms. Again, my lack of knowledge is hanging out, and the other kids are laughing... .

"deeper ... longing for something transcendental, something that satisfies in [the speaker's] life."

Good grief! Is that what the Rabbit said?! If so, forget what I said about agreeing with him. I just saw the word "transcendental" and not the rest of his sentence.

I think the narrator is wondering whether or not her social friend Oscar will find true happiness in isolated nature. (But there are whole parts of the poem I didn't completely understand.)

No laughing by other kids allowed on the PoemsFray.

Mary Ann