Despair

Many literary works can leap off the page and shake the reader at the core. When writers use a negative tone and add poetry it amplifies the effect. The poetic manner in which the speaker is conveyed gives the audience that much more of a jolting feeling and connection. In the poem, "Metaphors" by Sylvia Plath, the speaker uses metaphors to describe being pregnant. She considers this pregnancy a negative event. She uses everyday objects and events to help the audience understand the despair and anguish during this time. Men and women alike can comprehend the suffering this woman endures during her pregnancy.

Another poem, "Not Waving but Drowning" by Stevie Smith, conveys despair and angst through tone. The speaker uses a drowning man to symbolize the helplessness he feels in his life. The man calls out for help but onlookers pay no mind. The speaker helps the audience understand the immense anxiety and despair the swimmer feels as onlookers do nothing. Like Plath's poem, this too forces the audience to appreciate a foreign scenario and experience it through the tone of the speaker.

The painting below is by Edvard Munch, a Norwegian expressionist artist. This painting is an example of despair not only depicted through literature but works of art as well.