Solitude and Isolation

The poet, as presented in Lunch Poems, is a detached neurotic constantly questioning every aspect of his society. Throughout the collection, he is cloistered from the world, in his apartment in On Rachmaninoff's Birthday, on the street in A Step Away from Them, and in a park in A Poem en Forme de Saw.

In his solitude, O'Hara intends to be alone with his thoughts. He states in his opus For the Chinese New Year & For Bill Berkson that in a devolving world, detachment is the only reasonable choice. Still, this self-imposed solitude - most effectively dissected in Forme de Saw - becomes a detested, epidemic isolation for the poet. He chooses it for himself, but once alone he cannot brook it.

This haunting portrait of the artist as pariah is a central theme of Lunch Poems. O'Hara stands astride a complacent world and demands change...