Love Blog Post #3

Lonely Hearts by Wendy Cope

1. The title refers to the "Personals" advertising section in a newspaper or magazine in which people solicit companionship from others. Each of the five tercets represents a different ad. Explore the variety of needs that they display.

 I really liked this poem. I think it was because of how it was written, though. It was simple and clever and I found it very interesting. All these people are lonely and looking for someone else that they can live happily with. In the first tercet, it is simply a biker looking for a girl that he can take exploring with him. The second one is about a gay person who likes music and Shakespeare and the sun, but has very few friends. The third tercet is about a possibly uptight person who wants something new so they are searching for a bisexual, artsy, and young woman. Certainly that person wants to shake things up a bit. In the fourth one, there is an attractive Jewish lady with a son and she seems to be looking for a normal and average person just like her. In the final tercet, a Libran who is inexperienced and blue, is looking for a skinny, non-smoking person under the age of twenty-one. I'm not sure if there is deeper meaning in all of these descriptions. Certainly there is deeper meaning, it is a poem and I am sure the poet wasn't just recounting what she saw in the newspaper that day. I think it shows a variety of wants and needs that a variety of people want and need. One of the deeper meanings I possibly thought about was when the "Executive was in search of something new--" (Cope 973). I thought it showed a great contrast between the uptight executive who needs to let loose a little bit.