Public calamity was added to private bereavement.
The public was at first greatly mystified by the nature and object of this poem, which was not merely a chronicle of Tennyson's emotions under bereavement, nor even a statement of his philosophical and religious beliefs, but, as he long afterwards explained, a sort of Divina Commedia, ending with happiness in the marriage of his youngest sister, Cecilia Lushington.
Mixed in with the loneliness of bereavement, Naomi felt abandoned, helpless, without hope and in despair.
Never, since the death of Washington, had there been in the United States such a universal expression of public sorrow and bereavement.
Many are reactions to normal life events e.g. bereavement or marital breakdown.
