# Values explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Georgia Douglas Johnson.

## What happens

The narrator reflects on the inadequacy of material wealth and external pleasures to satisfy a deep, unspoken inner longing that persists through day and night.

## Themes in this chapter

### Suffering and Resilience

The narrator endures an unceasing, aching want that neither comfort nor distraction can soothe.

### Isolation and Otherness

The deep, unspeakable need sets the narrator apart from the world of 'pretty baubles' and golden wine.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker expresses a profound internal hunger that material goods cannot satisfy.

## Key lines

> All the pretty baubles spread Are not the answer to my need

All the attractive trinkets laid out before me cannot fulfill what I truly lack.

_The narrator dismisses material wealth as irrelevant to their deeper desire._

> A want unspeakable resides, That throbs and throbs unceasingly

An inexpressible longing lives within me, pulsing without pause.

_The core of the poem: an unnameable, persistent yearning._

> I balance it⁠— The world flies upward in the scale!

When I weigh this longing against everything else, the world is found wanting.

_The narrator's inner need outweighs all worldly possessions and pleasures._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_9_se/chapters/values
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_9_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_9_se/chapters