essay 2

The poem I chose to write about is "Ghost of a Lunatic Asylum" by Stephen Vincent Benet. Benet was born in Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania. His family's militant background led him to be enrolled in the Hitcock Military Academy at the age of ten. He later attended Yale university where he thrived as a member of the Elizabethan Club. This poem is about an asylum which was once filled with dying luntaics. The walls tell the stories of those who occupied the rooms. The symbols and tone add to the morbid description of these lost souls in the asylum.

Tone is bascially the mood of the poem. The tone of this poem is very dark and mysterious. The poet chose to give it a dark tone because it gives the reader a feel for how haunted the asylum is. The mystery behind this poem makes it feel secretive. The sound of the poem makes it gloomy and cold because it feels heartless. There isn't any light to this poem and the asylum seems to be the cause of its occupants deaths.

Symbolism is something that represents something else that is so much deeper. The symbols in this poem help you better understand the poem as well as adds to the mood of the poem. The eyes of the men who occupied this asylum where as bright as black windows which means that the men had suffered and became one with the asylum. The asylum felt like a prison that the men could not escape from because the asylum already had a hold on them. The thumbless man who is weaving dreams is really a man who has gone even madder while at the asylum. The occupants of this asylum have aged tragically with the asylum and perished when it perished itself.

Death isn't always more tragic than life; this is what the poem is telling us. While alive the prisoners of this asylum suffered and went through the same changes as the asylum. When the lunatics dies they were finally able to escape the morbid feel of the asylum though not entirely. Eventhough I chose this poem I really didn't like it because it was too gloomy for me. It shows you that sometimes even if you think death is an escape a place can always hold your soul