ANALYZING LITERATURE THROUGH SHIFTS

• Your Name: Kylie McCalmont
• Title & Author of the Piece: “Alone” by Edgar Allan Poe
• Topic: A life from childhood to adulthood alone and chancing something all the way up until death
• Task to Accomplish: To Analyze shifts in the poem for a deeper analysis and relate it to Wuthering Heights

• What is happening in the first few lines? Poe is contrasting himself from other children when he was younger.
• What is your first impression of the speaker's TONE? Sorrowful realization
• What is your evidence from the text? “From the same source I have not taken My sorrow--I could not awaken” (Line 5-6)
• What are your observations about the speaker or situation based on the TONE and evidence? Poe for one of the first time is discussing his depression and explaining why he was so isolated from others and happiness throughout his life.

Shift:

• The tone switches from realization to melancholy.
• Poe explains of a situation that caused him to feel this depression and uses a transitional word “then”.
• Evidence: “Then--in my childhood--in the dawn Of a most stormy life--was drawn” (Line 9-10)
• Observation: The tone shift and insertion of the metaphor of dawn allows the reader to get a deeper analysis of Poe’s psychological state and isolation.

Shift:

• Poe breaks from the melancholy mood and switches to a tone of confession.
• Using symbolism, Poe characterizes his depression as a powerful figure such as a demon that haunts him and he doesn’t have control over him.
• Evidence:   “(When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view—” (Line 21-22)

• Observations: The shift is further created by the parenthesis that contrast the world who has happiness compared to Poe who is wrought with sadness.