"Lonely Hearts" by: Wendy Cope

While reading this poem, I noticed that every stanza was the same length and every stanza alternated endings. I associated the uniform length of every stanza with how these types of dating searches would be submitted into a magazine. Every stanza was a separate ad submitted to a newspaper in search of a date. The endings of the stanzas alternated, ending with either "Do you live in North London? Is it you?" or "Can someone make my simple wish come true?" until the last stanza which ends with both of these lines. This repetition and uniformity lead me to realize that the author is satirizing people who write in to papers in search of dates. I was also lead to believe this because the speaker only chooses people who are usually viewed as outcasts to write about, such as "gay vegetarian," "executive in search of bisexual women," "straight and solvent, attractive Jewish lady," and "Libran, inexperienced." Even if the person is not an outcast, the speaker causes them to be viewed as an outcast or as an odd person because of their uncommon or unaccepted preferences. The speaker causes the people writing the ads to sound desperate by incorporating the questions and repetition between each stanza/ad.