Feelings of loss, or the emptiness of a distant love are both linked to forms of mourning and are symbolically linked to darkness, melancholy and other negative things. The loss of a loved one, due to death, distance or disagreement, causes anguish that is often expressed in many different ways. Loneliness, longing, grief, and lament are the usual results of lovesickness or grief and are ways of coping with the loss of a relationship physically, mentally, or both. When I first read “Zero Degrees” by Elizabeth Spires, my initial image was of impending winter; cold, dark and long. The image of a person lamenting the absence of a loved one during a cold night, where the underwear itself is a reminder of what is missing, evokes feelings of loneliness and sadness. All of these concepts express a lack, or void, something that as human beings we strive to fill and, in the process, fear. In this essay I will try to discover how “Zero Degrees” conveys the concept of emptiness and mourning in the context of relationships and nature. The beauty of poetry is the ability to transcend the boundaries of description that prose cannot reach. In poetry there need not be a linear structure, a plot, or a coincident reason for everything. Thoughts can become objects, emotions can become environments, and objects can become subjects. It is these qualities that I found in “0 Degrees” by Elizabeth Spiers that led me to undertake further exploration of this poem and the symbolic elements of nature, memory, and emotion that work in tandem to draw the reader in. The title itself draws attention for the connotation of “Zero Degrees,” which in meteorological terminology, is the point in degrees Celsius where water freezes. Freezing or immobility is a theme... at the center of the card... as is the tendency to question what has left us alone. Filling the void of loneliness is an experience linked to human awareness, and with that awareness comes the potential for desperation, be it a temporary or permanent absence. The concept of loss haunts all our nights, cold or otherwise, as it reminds us of our temporality in the world. Works Cited This is in progress: I just jotted down my sources for the draft in lieu of a fully MLA-formatted works cited page.Source – Poetry by Elizabeth SpiresSource – Catharsis in Psychoanalysis (Tyson's Critical Theory)Source – Color Definition Black/Whitehttp://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/skeleton-in-the-closet.html guilty secrethttp:/ /www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/skeleton+in+the+closet.html definition cited 1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleton_in_the_cupboard definition cited 2