In "The Cross of Snow" by H.W. Longfellow, and in "Sorting Laundry" by Elisavietta Ritchie, there is a common theme: loneliness. Longfellow's poem reflects his loneliness after his wife's death in the fire of their house and Ritchie's poem first describes how she needs and loves her lover. Afterwards, she expresses how she is worried of losing him. In both of the poems the writers have found their soul mate: Longfellow has lost her and he loves her so much that he is haunted by her and Ritchie is thinking to their wonderful relationship and understands that she will never endure being separated from her lover.
             In their poems, they both express their infinite love towards their lover. In Ritchie's poem, her feelings may not be extremely explicit, however doing laundry is normally a painful and repetitive task which becomes annoying in the long run but Ritchie is not suffering from it; she enjoys it. For each piece of laundry, she pictures a moment of their relationship or think at delightful thoughts of her lover. It has been "recycling week after week, head over heels recapitulating themselves"(121. 17-18). Instead of being exhausted, as sorting laundry normally does, she is rejuvenated week after week. To have this feeling when you do the laundry, you don't have to be only in love with someone, you must be madly in love with him/her. Longfellow's love for his wife is as powerful as Ritchie's if not greater. He doesn't see his wife as his kindred soul
             or as his tender lover like Ritchie, instead, he describes her as an angel: "The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light. Here in this room she died; and soul more white Never through martyrdom of fire was led"(4-6). Although he is depressed because of his lover's death, his words can make her be alive again.
             Loneliness often strikes when you have lost someone important or when you are distanced ...