He Who Does Not Hope (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Gunnar Ekelöf
- First Published: 1945
- Type of Work: Meditation
- Genres: Poetry, Meditation
- Subjects: Twentieth century, Despair, Hope, Disasters, Natural disasters, Fire, Life, philosophy of, Life and death, Snow, Belief or doubt
The Poem
In “He Who Does Not Hope,” the simplicity of Gunnar Ekelöf’s diction belies a highly dense thought process. It is a brief poem—thirty-two lines of free verse, divided into four eight-line stanzas—which begins calmly and rationally with two statements, the first of which echoes the title. The first four lines state that the absence of hope also means freedom from the despair that comes from disappointed hope; correspondingly, believing in nothing frees one from the torment of doubt. In the second half of the stanza, however, this passive but untroubled view...
[The entire page is 1438 words long]
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