Poetry often reflects on a certain feeling, as opposed to a drawn out essay or story, which attempts to thoroughly describe a subject in as many words as needed. The difficult part of writing poetry is capturing a more specific subject in much fewer words. The poet accomplishes this by using certain techniques and literary tools. Perhaps a single object symbolizes something much bigger, or a particular color or character fulfills a literary archetype. An example of this is this contemporary poetry piece, which captures an aspect of life by using several of these mechanisms. The poet utilizes literary techniques to appeal to a fear in which everyone holds; being alone.
             In the beginning of the poem, the speaker compares herself to a number of things that share her feelings of loneliness. She begins this list with the statement, "...O every little thing wants to be loved..."(5-6), and continues to describe the "..the horse alone in the wide flat field"(9) and "...the cow slung with the unmilked weight of her tremendous teets..."(11-12) that finally gives "...a look back over her shoulder At O lonesome me"(12-13). The speaker is comparing herself to these lonely animals in a string of possible metaphors, most of them having other meanings as well. In the end of the poem, the speaker brings up what seems to be her lover, or recipient of her love, regardless if the love is returned. What is interesting is her reference to two specific colors in the poem, "purpled" in line three when she is speaking of this lonely feeling, and "blue" in line twenty-three, when she is discussing this loved one, kind of eliminating the previous pessimistic attitude in the beginning of the poem. Purple is the archetypal color for sickness or depression, while blue represents a positive nature, or a spiritual presence. It is obvious that the speaker is very gloomy in the beginning of the p...