In this villanelle, each stanza represents a separate personal ad posted by someone, a lonely heart, seeking companionship. Each person lists a set of unique characteristics he or she possesses and then contributes to the villanelle's traditional repetition by concluding with a question for other lonely hearts. At first, the collection of lonely individuals searching for love seems depressing, reinforcing the notion that many people struggle to find love. In reality, the poem does not seek to convey such a message. Rather, by listing each lonely heart's request for companionship one after the other, the poem unites the lonely hearts in their search for love. Furthermore, the diverse characteristics shared in each stanza prove that there are companions of every kind for anyone willing to search for such people. Therefore, instead of supporting the futility of looking for love, a poem ironically entitled "Lonely Hearts" encourages lonely individuals to keep looking. It does so through the villanelle's characteristic repetition of phrases. Throughout the poem, each stanza repeats the questions, "Do you live in North London? Is it you?" or "Can someone make my simple wish come true?" (Cope 973). These phrases encourage lonely hearts reading the poem that they are not the only ones searching for love. Furthermore, the final stanza includes the supportive thought, "Who knows where it may lead once we've begun?" to emphasize that all relationships have the potential to be genuinely loving (Cope 974).
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