ENGLISH LITERATURE
LOVE + ISOLATION MADE BY REBECCA
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resources/shop/edwardsrebecca69
Poems and Themes Gatsby Quotes
Whoso List To Hunt - Wyatt ‘His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.’
The speaker pursues his ‘hind’ with considerable energy and devotion. (chapter 5)
However his strong inclination to ‘hold the wind’, to ‘tame’ this elusive
woman (depicted as the ‘deer’) ultimately leaves him ‘wearied’ and ‘...an elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words.’ (chapter 6)
‘sore’.
Theme: love and isolation, unrequited love and additionally barriers to ‘Only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped
love. away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible.’ (chapter
Ae Fond Kiss - Burns 7)
The ‘broken-hearted’ speaker confronts the pain that comes with
losing a lover. The distress and ‘dark despair’ that surrounds the ‘The words seem to bite physically into Gatsby.’ (chapter 7)
speaker makes him and perhaps the reader question whether love is
worth the emotional cost. ‘...paid a high price for living too long with a single dream’
Theme: love and isolation. (chapter 8)
Non Sum Qualis - Dowson
The speaker tries to distract himself from the pain of Cynara’s ‘I found myself on Gatsby’s side and alone.’ (chapter 9)
absence. However his life of debauchery and hedonism fails to rid him
of his lost love.
Theme: love and isolation.
Links to Gatsby Poetry Quotes Analysis
‘The vain travail hath wearied me so sore’
Gatsby is disassociated with reality which ‘Vain travail’ presents the futility of pursuing unattainable love and how it results in sadness and isolation. The
‘wearied’ speaker later mentions that he is ‘the furthest come behind’, the ‘furthest’ away from his lover.
isolates him from reality, he believes that if Alternative reading: The poem could perhaps reflect the political turmoil of 16th century England. The exhaustion and
he is wealthy enough Daisy will love him. frustration of England’s break from the Catholic church and the future of Henry VIII’s Protestant country.
This isolates him further as he is completely ‘…I seek to hold the wind’
focused on acquiring enough money to win The metaphor ‘hold the wind’ further accentuates this idea of love being perhaps fruitless and to some extent
impossible.
her back. ‘Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am’
His delusion is what isolates him from The third quote (and the poem overall) draws a parallel to Wyatt’s own pursuit of Anne Boleyn, who may perhaps
reality, it makes him believe he could be symbolise the ‘deer’.
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with Daisy.
‘Dark despair around benights me’
Similarly, In Whoso List to Hunt, the Alliteration - highlights how his life and heart are consumed by this ‘dark’ void.
speaker believes he can win the chase and ‘Deep in heart-wrung tears...’
catch the ‘hind’ but someone with more Somber imagery of tears seeping from his ‘broken heart’ intensifies the speaker’s emotions and perhaps mirrors
the author’s feelings of his lover, Nancy.
money and power wins the chase. This is
‘While the star of hope she leaves him?’
similar to Gatsby, as Daisy chooses Tom Incorporates celestial imagery as his lover was the ‘star of hope’. Perhaps an intertextual reference to
over him. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 - ’the star to every wandering bark’ - uses natural imagery, sentiment and emotion
In Non Sum, the speaker is isolated from his conventional to 18th century Romanticism literature.
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lover which makes his love stronger and
‘When I awoke and found the dawn was grey’
makes the speaker realise he wants to be Monochrome atmosphere. Contrasting ideas as the ‘dawn’, a universal symbol of new life and hope, is seen as
with her. He speaks about being with a ‘grey’. Projects this recurring feeling of despair and futility in the poem.
prostitute, which makes him long for ‘Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind’
No future happiness or attempts of distraction will alleviate the heartbreak he now feels.
Cyanara.
‘I cried for madder music and for stronger wine’
In all 4 texts, isolation makes love stronger. The speaker’s decadent lifestyle filled with ‘wine’, ‘roses’ and ‘music’ is brief and temporary yet his memory of
Cynara remains ever-present. ‘Cried’ heightens his desperate attempts of distraction - he needs to forget but is
unable to.
Analysis
Love and isolation is a prominent theme seen across literature of love. Both Fitzgerald, Wyatt, Burns and "Fitzgerald seems to have
Dowson establish this theme of love and isolation through the speaker's pursuit for the unobtainable. The had a brilliant
speaker's and Gatsby's inability to 'hold the wind' and to transcend the 'dark despair' they are consumed with understanding of lives that
further cements this theme. Whilst Burn’s and Wyatt’s speaker question the ‘vain travail’ of love, Dowson are corrupted by greed are
and Gatsby are unable to erase their ‘incorruptible dreams’. The ‘shadow’ like figure of Dowson’s speaker’s incredibly sad and
lost love, Cynara that haunts him and the ‘illusion’ of the American Dream leads to despair for both male unfulfilled...Gatsby is really
subjects. This theme of love and isolation in Dowson’s poem is not only conventional to the Decadent nothing more than a man
movement, which romanticized nostalgia and decay, but mirrors the life of excess he indulged in, similar to desperate for love."
Fitzgerald. But despite being written in contrasting eras, all four texts effectively explore enduring isolation
and the 'desolate' aftermath of love: a common trope across literature. - James Topham
LOVE + ISOLATION MADE BY REBECCA
https://www.tes.com/teaching-
resources/shop/edwardsrebecca69
Poems and Themes Gatsby Quotes
Whoso List To Hunt - Wyatt ‘His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.’
The speaker pursues his ‘hind’ with considerable energy and devotion. (chapter 5)
However his strong inclination to ‘hold the wind’, to ‘tame’ this elusive
woman (depicted as the ‘deer’) ultimately leaves him ‘wearied’ and ‘...an elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words.’ (chapter 6)
‘sore’.
Theme: love and isolation, unrequited love and additionally barriers to ‘Only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped
love. away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible.’ (chapter
Ae Fond Kiss - Burns 7)
The ‘broken-hearted’ speaker confronts the pain that comes with
losing a lover. The distress and ‘dark despair’ that surrounds the ‘The words seem to bite physically into Gatsby.’ (chapter 7)
speaker makes him and perhaps the reader question whether love is
worth the emotional cost. ‘...paid a high price for living too long with a single dream’
Theme: love and isolation. (chapter 8)
Non Sum Qualis - Dowson
The speaker tries to distract himself from the pain of Cynara’s ‘I found myself on Gatsby’s side and alone.’ (chapter 9)
absence. However his life of debauchery and hedonism fails to rid him
of his lost love.
Theme: love and isolation.
Links to Gatsby Poetry Quotes Analysis
‘The vain travail hath wearied me so sore’
Gatsby is disassociated with reality which ‘Vain travail’ presents the futility of pursuing unattainable love and how it results in sadness and isolation. The
‘wearied’ speaker later mentions that he is ‘the furthest come behind’, the ‘furthest’ away from his lover.
isolates him from reality, he believes that if Alternative reading: The poem could perhaps reflect the political turmoil of 16th century England. The exhaustion and
he is wealthy enough Daisy will love him. frustration of England’s break from the Catholic church and the future of Henry VIII’s Protestant country.
This isolates him further as he is completely ‘…I seek to hold the wind’
focused on acquiring enough money to win The metaphor ‘hold the wind’ further accentuates this idea of love being perhaps fruitless and to some extent
impossible.
her back. ‘Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am’
His delusion is what isolates him from The third quote (and the poem overall) draws a parallel to Wyatt’s own pursuit of Anne Boleyn, who may perhaps
reality, it makes him believe he could be symbolise the ‘deer’.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
with Daisy.
‘Dark despair around benights me’
Similarly, In Whoso List to Hunt, the Alliteration - highlights how his life and heart are consumed by this ‘dark’ void.
speaker believes he can win the chase and ‘Deep in heart-wrung tears...’
catch the ‘hind’ but someone with more Somber imagery of tears seeping from his ‘broken heart’ intensifies the speaker’s emotions and perhaps mirrors
the author’s feelings of his lover, Nancy.
money and power wins the chase. This is
‘While the star of hope she leaves him?’
similar to Gatsby, as Daisy chooses Tom Incorporates celestial imagery as his lover was the ‘star of hope’. Perhaps an intertextual reference to
over him. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 - ’the star to every wandering bark’ - uses natural imagery, sentiment and emotion
In Non Sum, the speaker is isolated from his conventional to 18th century Romanticism literature.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
lover which makes his love stronger and
‘When I awoke and found the dawn was grey’
makes the speaker realise he wants to be Monochrome atmosphere. Contrasting ideas as the ‘dawn’, a universal symbol of new life and hope, is seen as
with her. He speaks about being with a ‘grey’. Projects this recurring feeling of despair and futility in the poem.
prostitute, which makes him long for ‘Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind’
No future happiness or attempts of distraction will alleviate the heartbreak he now feels.
Cyanara.
‘I cried for madder music and for stronger wine’
In all 4 texts, isolation makes love stronger. The speaker’s decadent lifestyle filled with ‘wine’, ‘roses’ and ‘music’ is brief and temporary yet his memory of
Cynara remains ever-present. ‘Cried’ heightens his desperate attempts of distraction - he needs to forget but is
unable to.
Analysis
Love and isolation is a prominent theme seen across literature of love. Both Fitzgerald, Wyatt, Burns and "Fitzgerald seems to have
Dowson establish this theme of love and isolation through the speaker's pursuit for the unobtainable. The had a brilliant
speaker's and Gatsby's inability to 'hold the wind' and to transcend the 'dark despair' they are consumed with understanding of lives that
further cements this theme. Whilst Burn’s and Wyatt’s speaker question the ‘vain travail’ of love, Dowson are corrupted by greed are
and Gatsby are unable to erase their ‘incorruptible dreams’. The ‘shadow’ like figure of Dowson’s speaker’s incredibly sad and
lost love, Cynara that haunts him and the ‘illusion’ of the American Dream leads to despair for both male unfulfilled...Gatsby is really
subjects. This theme of love and isolation in Dowson’s poem is not only conventional to the Decadent nothing more than a man
movement, which romanticized nostalgia and decay, but mirrors the life of excess he indulged in, similar to desperate for love."
Fitzgerald. But despite being written in contrasting eras, all four texts effectively explore enduring isolation
and the 'desolate' aftermath of love: a common trope across literature. - James Topham
