Different poems appeal in different ways and some are not really comparable. I wouldn't attempt to compare The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot - a poem I enjoyed at the age of seventeen - with Milton's Lycidas, which I had to study (and also enjoyed) when I was sixteen. But examiners love to make people 'compare', and so I suppose it is a valid exercise to look in a critical way at two different poet's rendering of the same general theme.
Here is a request for help with this that I received
She said:
"I am a GCSE student taking english literature. I have been asked to write an essay comparing the two poems A Poison Tree by William Blake and You in Anger by James Reeves. I would greatly appreciate any ideas or tips you could give me for my essay. Thank-you."Here is what I said
When you compare any two pieces of writing (or music or painting or drama or cake), you are going to be looking at similarities and differences. So here are some things you can look for in poetry.
What is the poem about?
Poems are always about something, even if it's not immediately obvious. Dylan Thomas starts one of his poems with the line: "In the beginning was the three pointed star," and goes on to add more lines that build up in a rich and sonorous way to a poem that seems to be about creation. But is it?
Sometimes poems have a hidden meaning behind the images used. You might ask yourself: What made the poets want to write their poems?
Are the two poems you have to compare (I own to not having read either) expressing the same feelings, but differently? Is it love, bereavement, pleasure, or a social comment? For instance, poets speak about old age differently. They come at it from a different angle, with their personal voice.
T.S.Eliot said in one poem: "I grow old, I grow old, I wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled." W.B.Yeats said: "When you are old and gray and full of sleep..." What pictures do they paint, or story do they tell you? Does the same picture - eg. the face of someone the poet loves - tell you something different in each case about the poet's feelings?
I guess from the titles that the Blake and Reeves poems are about emotions. It is emotions or some other strong impression that often bring a poem out of its hiding place in the poet's head.
Here are some particular features you could compare.
Rhythm and beat.
Rhythm and beat create a mood. It's a bit like music. I suppose the technical term is 'scansion' and I think there are words to describe the different forms of scanning. Di Dah di Dah di Dah "I wandered lonely as a cloud.."
Read the poems aloud to yourself. Does it sound like tum-ti-tum-ti tum-ti tum. Or tum-titty-tum-titty- tum-titty-tum? Or some other sort of rhythm? Does the beat make the poems sound sad or jolly, calm or agitated?
I heard a rap poem on the radio recently. The poet was a young woman writing about the fairy tale Rapunzel. "Rap-punzel, Rap-punzel, let down your hair" was the refrain. It was very effective.
Part of the rhythm is the effect of having lines of a certain length. In the sonnet form these are predetermined - as is the number of lines.
So, are the lines all the same length - or different lengths? And how are they arranged on the page?
Rhyme
Do the poems rhyme?
Rhyme can carry a poem along. But using
approximate rhymes or carefully putting
together words that harmonise with each other, without rhyming, can also get the same
result. A poem doesn't have to rhyme, but there is a difference between not rhyming
through lack of skill and not rhyming because it is not important for that particular
poem.
In each case does the poet take care to gets exact rhymes like year and near or approximate rhymes like fair and fear. Or perhaps one poet doesn't try to rhyme at all. Does the rhyme make the poem sing? Does a lack of rhyme make the poem sound more like conversation?
Words
Poets choose words carefully. Each word is there for a purpose. Are the two poets using different words to express the same emotion or idea or picture. Or some of the the same words to express different emotions, ideas or pictures? Are there words that have their own specially nice sounds. Or words that create a special effect by their sound? The verse by Milton below has lots of long vowel sounds. Watery sorts of sounds.
Do the poets use long words or short words or a mixture of both? Does either poet repeat words or phrases to get a special effect?
Alliteration is a way of putting words together that have some of the same sounds. Milton used it in this verse from Comus. Listen to the el and oo sounds in the third line:
"Sabrina fair,
Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave:
In twisted braids of lilies knitting
The loose trains of thy amber dropping hair;
Listen for dear honour's sake,
Goddess of the silver lake,
Listen and save."
Imagery
You could compare the imagery the two poets use. It can be very effective to describe something by actually describing something else - or saying something is like something else.
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.." Wordsworth
"Her heart is always doing lovely things,
Filling my wintry mind with simple flowers..." Masefield
"And the still hour
Is come of the sea tumbling in harness..." Dylan Thomas
The poem's voice
Lastly, you need to think about each poem's voice. What does it sound like to you? Is it a dry, wry comment? Wistful or sad? Full of wonder, or anger or acceptance?
Is it designed to be read aloud, declaimed to an audience? Or read silently, in private? Is it a narrative or an episode?
Looking through my poetry books, I was struck by how few women poets were published in the past. At least that is changing now. Do women use different imagery from men? Do their poems have a different voice?
© Virginia Purchon 1999
Page created on 3rd November 1999
This page was last updated on
13 November 2006
.