Lonely Hearts
By: Wendy Cope

In this poem, readers get to read multiple ads from a newspaper.  Apparently, the newspaper offers a section of ads where some of the locals in North London write descriptions about themselves in hopes of finding love.  For example, one of the writers describes himself as a male biker that wants a fun female companion.  Another writer explains that she is an attractive Jewish woman with a son; she is looking for a man as her soul mate.  Another claims to be a "gay vegetarian whose friends are few" (973).  This proves that these writers are all lonely.  This fits into the poem's title "Lonely Hearts."  Each writer repeats at least one of these two rhetorical questions: "can someone make my simple wish come true?" or "Do you live in North London?  Is it you? (973)."  These rhetorical questions reinforce the loneliness of the writers and how desperate they are to find love.  (If they are resorting to a newspaper ad to find love, I'd say they are pretty desperate.)  I think the purpose that Cope was trying to convey in this poem is that some people are so empty without love in their lives that they would be willing to appear desperate to fill this emptiness.