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  • Essay / An Analysis of the Use of Tone in "Alone with Everyone"

    Charles Bukowski's poem "Alone with Everyone" was written in the mid-1970s and was first published in a collection of poetry titled Love is a Hellhound in 1977. Bukowski is a German-born American author known for his ability to convey feelings of utter despair in his writing, and he does not fail to create a tone shifts from disinterested to discontent in this poem. “Alone With Everybody” details the emotions of an isolated individual contemplating the meaning of life. Bukowski explores the complex inner workings of an existential crisis with his readers in "Alone With Everybody" using a dramatic tonal shift in his "stream of consciousness" writing style. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The poem begins with the speaker reflecting on the idea of ​​creation and the meaning of the human form, but Bukowski's choice of words leads readers to assume a feeling of indifference rather than respect to the with regard to these subjects. The delivery of the first stanza is very slow and droning, and it seems to imitate a kind of stillness in the poet's thought process. Bukowski uses the word "and" seven times in the first stanza of the poem, imitating a sense of repetitiveness he feels in life. Bukowski describes the complexity of life in an overly simplistic way: the flesh covers the bones and we put a spirit and sometimes a soul. (97) His simplistic style and his passivity on the subject are striking in their flatness, and the wording is very impersonal and cold. “Flesh” and “bone” create a sense of distance between the poet and the human form, and the distance further emphasizes the poet’s feelings of isolation and alienation. To further emphasize the impersonal nature of the poem, Bukowski, rather than directly addressing a creator or naming a god, chooses to use the pronoun "they", which adds to the vague and passive nature of the first stanza. The first lines lead us to understand the poet's particular state of mind and set a dull tone. Indeed, the first stanza continues to explain the monotony and pointlessness of life through the eyes of the poet as he deepens his thoughts on purpose. to exist. After an initial contemplation of creation and the human form, Bukowski writes about love and relationships: women break vases against walls and men drink too much and no one finds that one but continues to search by crawling through and out of beds. (97) The poet presents a love life as impersonal as creation, and he adheres to the monotonous tone with which he began the poem. The repetitiveness with which Bukowski presents the idea of ​​love leaves the impression of a person simply going through the motions of life. Bukowski's interpretation of love is atypical in its form, because, rather than expressing a normal emotion like happiness or sadness, the poet creates a feeling of total emptiness and exhaustion when it comes to of love. Bukowski continues, flesh covers bone and flesh seeks more than flesh. (97) The poet further develops the notion of simply going through the motions of life and aspiring for a greater goal in vain with the use of the word “searches” in the poem. The poet gives the impression that love is lost and that he embarks on an endless and desperate search. In addition to the emotionless treatment of the subject of love, the poem also treats love ambiguously. While the poet implies that he wishes to find something more meaningful in life, he also asserts the futility of this by saying that "no one finds that one." At.