"Our hearts, our voices - Must we too be dumb?"

"The Buried Life" by Matthew Arnold was, in my opinion, a very intriguing peom. It makes a great and obvious connection to us all in society today.

Though some people might deny it, everyone unintentionally or not, hides a part of themselves to the rest of the world. No matter how much you think you know a person, there will always be that side of them that will never be shown. In this poem, Arnold analyzes why people might do this. Of course, everyone has their own reason for doing so, but the most obvious ones are that we as individuals fear what society might think of us by exposing our "whole" selves. This concept of having a part of us that we don't show can, however, harm us in certain ways. Some people might not be always completely honest about things. Some people might totally isolate themselves, just to avoid having to deal with hiding a certain part of themselves.

Even with people that think they are always a hundrend percent completely themselves, this is not true. A good majority of the people today unknowingly hide some characterics about themselves, because we fear how much we will be judged.

Everyone in society has expectations of other to be themselves. So why are we still afraid to completely open ourselves to others? To some, the answer might be obvious, but to others they are utterly unaware of why they even do so. Autimatically, by not being yourself in the presence of others, you cannot be true to yourself. People hide behind "disguises" so they can feel accepted by society. No one should have to go through this, but unfortunately that is how our generation has developped.

With reference to the poem, Anorld puts emphasis how even people in love do not demonstate their complete selves. Love should be a means of self-discovery and find out who you really are, and this is not the case for most. You should feel totally comfortable with the person you choose to love, and if you don't that can cause damage to your relationship, maybe even putting it to an end.

My favortie quote in this poem is "... is even love to weak to unlock the heart, and let it speak? Are even lovers powerless to reveal to one another how they really feel?" In my opinion, this is a really interesting quote. It is very profound and one hundrend percent true. Why should lovers have to hide some part of themselves? If you love someone, shouldn't it be ALL of them that you love?

So take a second and think, WHY do we mask our REAL selves? Should we go to that extent just to be accepted in society?