Close Reading Essay of Unwanted

In the poem, “Unwanted”, Edward Field uses imagery and the passage of time as a way for a reader to feel the loneliness of the speaker and the want to feel needed or even noticed. The speaker adds his own commentary at the bottom of the poem to express his desperation. Field uses alliteration and imagery in line 4, “Posting first full face and then profile” to slow the pace of the poem and stress timing. Alliteration causes the line to be more memorable and gives the effect of the speaker pausing to look at what is in front of him – a picture of himself. The speaker’s loneliness is taken to a new level when he risks his freedom to pose next to a Wanted poster of himself and is upset still, when no one recognizes him. Field’s syntax escalates when he lets his background shine through as his words become dialectical, “Ah guess ah’ll go up echo mountain and crah,” (line 8). The use of the affected spelling causes the reader to pause again as they try to attain the accent of Edward Field. The speaker notes, reluctantly, that, “The photograph was taken some years ago,” (line 6) as if he doesn’t want to acknowledge that so much time has gone by that no one is able to recognize him, that he doesn’t even receive a passing glance. The speaker’s need to feel noticed and appreciated is also reflected in the way that Frankenstein’s monster felt lonely. Both of them only ever wanted love and were still unable to receive it. The speaker’s loneliness is so strong that he desperately states that he will answer to anything, but especially love. Frankenstein’s monster only craves affection from his master, and when he doesn’t receive it, he goes out on a rampage. The monster realizes that he only draws horror from Victor and so asks him to create a female companion so that he may be happy and feel loved and not so judged by how he looks.