Question

Is there a feeling of empathy between the speaker and Nicholas Nye? Explain​

Answer 1

Answer:

"Nicholas Nye" is a poem about an old donkey named Nicholas Nye. The poem describes a typical day for Nicholas Nye, as the poet observes him in his pasture, and suggests there is a connection between the donkey and the poet, a certain commonality of feeling or experience. In this sense, you can think of the poem as not being about a donkey so much as it is a meditation on growing old.

Nicholas Nye is “lean and gray, Lame of leg and old” and he seems to say “Poor Nicholas Nye!” There does seem to be an empathic connection between poet and donkey; the donkey at times seems to “smile” at the poet:

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Answer 2

The central theme of the poem concerns empathizing with feelings of loneliness in one's old age. In the poem, the speaker describes the donkey as being "more than a score of donkey's years." A score is 20 years, which is rather old for a donkey. While we don't know the speaker's age, we know that he feels a deep connection with the donkey and has plenty of time on his hands to loaf around the meadow all day long. The connection between the speaker and the donkey is revealed when the speaker describes the donkey as seeming to smile at him and says that something much better than words" passed between them. Due to this connection and how the speaker spends his time, we can assume the speaker is also in his old age and feels a sense of comradeship with the old donkey because the donkey is just as old and lonely as he is. Due to their mutual old age and loneliness, both the donkey and speaker can feel empathy for each other, a feeling the theme of the poem promotes. “Nicholas Nye” by Walter de la Mare is a six-stanza poem that describes a day in the life of an old donkey named Nicholas Nye and the narrator.

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