Question: A lament is an expression of sadness. With close reference to the text, discuss the style used in the non-italicized section of the poem to convey this sadness.
The title and themes in this poem portray the strong feeling of grief and sadness as the person in the story communicates the emotional hardships they have gone through and the lasting emotional effects it has had on their life. This person has lost someone dear to them, and everything seems to remind them of the person who is lost at sea and isn’t coming back. The use of repetition in this poem reinforces the idea of stylistic sadness. Through the poem, every other stanza starts with the sentence “it does not matter” followed by something that either conveys an emotion or a lack of something dear to them. For example, in the 7th stanza, it opens with “it does not matter if I am happy” and in the 9th stanza, it opens with “it does not matter if I am sad.” This is a stark contrast between the two emotions and suggests that the loss of their significant other has caused the person to tell the story to lose all meaning or understanding for feeling emotion, and just feels empty inside, like a hollow shell, void of meaning. Following on with this, at the beginning of the 10th stanza, the person in the story says “it does not matter if he is gone” which tells us that they are trying to get over the person that they have lost, but is ultimately being consumed by their strong emotions of sadness. The use of repetition is linked with the use of similes because one seems to beget the other. Similes are used all throughout the poem, in both the italicized and non-italicized sessions of the poem. Normally following the opening sentence or is a part of the opening sentence, almost every stanza seems to contain a simile that supports the sad themes that come from losing a significant other portrayed in this poem. For example, in the 10th stanza, the poem reads “it does not matter if he is gone if the forest is short one ordinary tree, or if there is laughter missing from the night like one more gap in a row of teeth.” The use of this simile signifies that something is missing, specifically one thing is missing. One ordinary tree, one more gap. The source of this person’s sadness is coming off of the lack of one person, specifically Buck, the person who has been lost at sea while fishing. This person must have had a big impact on this person’s life and has lost all meaning in life without him.
Still a W.I.P
