Pierced by a Ray of Sun: Poems About the Times We Feel Alone

by Ruth Gordon

A collection of poems ranging from ancient to modern times and encompassing several different cultures follows themes of young people who have felt misunderstood or alienated by an uncaring adult world, their communities, or their time periods

Genres: Poetry, Young Adult

105 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1995

About the author

As well as writing plays, film scripts, and books, Ruth Gordon was an actress of stage and screen. She is perhaps best known for her return to acting later in her career with memorable roles in films such as Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Harold and Maude (1971).

She was married to Garson Kanin, with whom she wrote several screenplays.

Reviews

[Danielle Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of depressing poems in this book, and yet I loved that the author sourced them from all over and from various times. Most of the poems were not ones I had heard over and over. I found the poems in the second half less depressing.

[Tristan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The central idea of the book, “Pierced by a Ray of Sun: Poems About the Times We Feel Alone.” was to express from decades past and present that loneliness is a thing that affects so many people. It focuses on the main idea of loneliness and how it has affected people, which is what poetry does, they express their experience. A hard one as it might be they find a way through it and become great. It emerges in your mind as a simple relation to you and how it can help you to read the book. Making its way through the times. Showing that loneliness is what you see and that it can be fixed. You find yourself and you can be happy. Which is a detail that refines the stories a little to make it seem like they have a way to stop it. The objective summary of the book is loneliness. It explains what loneliness is through the voices of others and how they felt through their experience. It shows their struggles through each of the poems. Explaining the feelings and how it affects them. The book and stories make you feel like you are not alone in the challenge of loneliness.
The figurative devices are not obvious but there is a good amount to make you feel the way they did. It is very good with its imagery and symbolism in the sense that loneliness is a feeling that we all experience though it is different for others.
My opinion on the book is a good one. A suggested read if you are feeling lonely. It makes sense out of the feeling through other’s perspectives making it seem less scary to us. It brings to light the problems that most teens face, being lonely even in the presence of others and just lonely in general. Loneliness is a hard topic not talked about much, so it’s good to see someone mention it.

[Addie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Pierced by a Ray of Sun the author took poems from different time periods about how people feel alone. The central idea is that everyone feels alone, there's no need to think that it's only you that feels that way.
Imagery and symbolism of two figurative devices that I found when reading the book. They weren’t very obvious but they made you feel more that everyone feels alone sometimes. The symbolism and imagery really helped to show and bring out the central idea.
This book was very good. It will make you realize that you aren’t the only one feeling alone. It's good to read about other teens experiences with feeling lonely. All the poetry was really well written. I really enjoyed this book.

[A. Bloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a cool collage of poems from all over the world and from different times. Some poems really spoke to me and they were cool, but others didn't.

[Allison Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Genre/Category: Poetry

This book was full of poetry for teenagers. Although the subtitle of the book is "Poems about the times we feel alone," I thought most of the poems dealt with everyday issues, including raising their hands at school, friendship, fitting in, being forgotten, AIDS, and much, more more. I was surprised by some of the classic poems that were added to the collection, including poems by Emily Dickinson and Tennyson, but they seemed to blend in well with the other assortment of poetry. My favorite poem was actually not a poem at all, but a proverb that said, "We are lonely.../ Until we find ourselves" (66). I really enjoyed reading poetry instead of the standard novel, but I doubt teens will be as eager to read these poems.

[Augustine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book for my old self, I was too much thinking then, I imagined that everything bad, helpless, and I got something in this book that make me realize I was understood.