Loneliness as both an individual and collective social feature in Disposal versus Eleanor Rigby

“Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave,

No one was saved.”

We roll her spoons up like old plans

Or failed securities, seal their case,

Imagery is also displayed phonetically. Snodgrass uses cacophony throughout the poem with repetition of “SP” and “D”. There is some use of this in “Eleanor Rigby”, but it isn’t as obvious. Instead, you can hear

alliteration throughout the song. Consonance of the “L” sound is echoed in the line “Ah, Look at all the lonely people.” There are small samples of alliteration in “Disposal” with the use of “F” as well. While “Disposal” and “Eleanor Rigby” both take wasted, lonely lives as their subject, Lennon and McCartney’s vision of loneliness is complicated by hinting at deeper issues of the church and humanity.