Love Unit- Lonely Hearts

Lonely Hearts

By: Wendy Cope

Different from the short stories, the poem by Wendy Cope addresses love from the view of loneliness. The narrator approaches love with uncertainty as represented in the questions posed in every stanza. Additionally, the narrator approaches love with ideas and regulations. 

"Can someone make my simple wish come true? Do you live in North London? Is it you? (Page 974)" This refrain, repeated constantly at the end of each stanza in segments, illustrates the central uncertainties and questions of the narrator. Within each stanza is a different detail or quality that the narrator searches for in potential suitors. In the first stanza, the quality is the person's location. In the second, it is their interests. The third and fourth contradict in that the third approaches the detail of differences and the fourth addresses similarities. The fifth stanza suggests final details and finally the sixth addresses communication. As each stanza addresses such different qualities, they are tied together by the core questions of is there someone for them to answer their simple wish and is that person you. Thus, the refrain serves an invaluable purpose of tying together every detail and quality by rooting such in the basic, but fundamental questions of does love exist for the narrator and who is that person. 

In the poem, Lonely Hearts, the narrator connects to the reader through the central theme of questioning the existence and presence of love.  It is through the refrain that the narrator ties this uncertainty felt by many people to that of the message of the poem. From finer qualities of pinpoint details to the central theme of searching for feeling and understanding, Cope creates a poem where repetition leads to change.