Maybe Lonely Is Not So Bad

Valentine Ackland expresses the duality experienced by single women in her poem, “Lonely Woman”. She discusses how part of the woman’s feelings dwell on her loneliness and anger because of this fact. She states, “Teased by its fancies and angry at being alone,” which explains how a woman who would like to share her day has no one to share it with and has nothing to do but think about how lonely she is (Dowson 36). Ackland also talks about how the woman unbeknown to her is also independent and free from most other problems faced by people who have a companion. She writes, “But now I am happy, and read, and do not think,” which shows how the woman’s feelings in one sitting drastically changes and she is comforted by simple thinks like a book (Dowson 36). This poem displays Ackland’s poetry style in that it describes feeling multiple ways at once and while happy with one aspect a person can also feel sorrow in another.