Losing someone is hard; but accepting the fact that they are gone forever is harder. In the poem, "The Lost Wife," by Stephen Vincent Benet, a man just lost his wife and he tries extremely hard to accept the fact that she is gone. Everything around him makes him think of his wife. By using the elements of poetry, one can clarify the poem in depth. The three stanzas in this poem can clarify why the man in this poem still loves his wife dearly. .
Association can be used to associate the concrete images, by engaging emotions. " And you wouldn't mind the ghost of her calling," he misses her wife so dearly that he would not mind seeing her spirit. The "ghost" tells the reader that the man thinks he sees his wife and hears her talking. His wife's belongings make him think more and more about her, and create illusory images of her. " Are the clothes in the closet that no one wears," every time this man opens up the closet he sees the clothes of his wife that she can no longer wear. Touching the clothes she once wore can help the man visualize his wife. This man's hunger for his wife is unbearable. "As much as knowing that no one cares now," since his wife is gone, he feels that no one cares about him anymore. He feels that his wife is the only person that cares about him, now that she is gone, he feels isolated and lonely. .
The symbols in this poem emphasizes why the man still loves his wife. When one goes to sleep, "And no one there in the bed to be near you," is a hard feeling to comprehend. He always had his wife with him and sleeping next to him. The wife is very important to this man because every night he goes to sleep looking beside him, seeing a big gap, he thinks of his wife. This man is very sensitive because every night before he goes to bed, he would think of his wife when he looks at the unfilled bed she used to sleep in. "In the daytime, maybe, your heart's not breaking. For there's the sun and the sky and working," when he is still in the house, he can never stop thinking of his wife.
