How to Write a Compare And Contrast Essay on Two Poems Text

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One way to compare two poems is by examining their similar structures and explaining how the structure relates to the poems' meaning or the time period in which they were written. For example, harryette mullen's dim lady is a twenty first century satire on william shakespeare's sonnet 130. Whereas shakespeare sticks closely to the traditional english sonnet structure of fourteen lines, iambic pentameter and an abab rhyme scheme, mullen experiments with the structure playfully, to humorous effect, as she gives a modern take on the sentiments of the original poem. Looking critically at similar examples of imagery, such as birds, can be another way to compare two poems.

In john keats's ode to a nightingale, the speaker calls to a bird to fly away! away! for i will fly to thee, /. In edgar allan poe's the raven, on the other hand, the titular bird mysteriously appears one night to torment the speaker with memories of his dead love lenore. In this example, you can compare how the birds are portrayed and the emotions they are intended to invoke, finding both similarities and differences between the two. Comparing instances of figurative language, such as metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy and synecdoche, is yet another option. British poet john keats and american poet emily dickinson, for example, personify the seasons in ode to autumn and apparently with no surprise.

In the former, keats writes that autumn can be seen sitting careless on a granary floor, whereas in the latter, dickinson refers to wintry frost as a blonde assassin that beheads a flower at its play. The poets' use of personification makes both autumn and winter seem to exhibit willful consciousness. For example, theodore roethke's my papa's waltz and mark irwin's my father's hat both seem to suggest that fathers impact their children's lives in unexpected ways, without fully realizing it. In both poems, the young speakers reflect back on everyday incidences involving their fathers that made a lasting impression on them.

Comparing and contrasting two poems is a vital aspect of studying literature. Throughout your career as a student you'll have to write several kinds of essays. Literature students, for instance, must write compare and contrast essays on two specific works of literature in this case, poetry. Such essays analyze the similarities and differences between two literary works to encourage critical thinking. Literary movements have certain characteristics that make it easy to pinpoint two poems with similar ideas or themes.

Make a venn diagram by drawing two overlapping circles one for each poem by the two authors. Write the similarities in the overlapping section of the circle, such as similarities in form, technique or ideas. In the individual spaces of the two circles write characteristics independent of each other.

Are they part of the same literary movement? what is the focus of each poem? what is the author's tone? is the poem broad or narrow in scope? work on the thesis of your essay. Your thesis will organize the thoughts swirling in your head so your essay has direction for not only the reader but also for you. For instance, why are you writing this paper on these poems? why should people care? to this end, consider the content of your class. Your thesis should not merely announce the comparison to the two poems but also your method of doing so. The former involves discussing all the characteristics, ideas and themes of the first and second poems in full.

The latter discusses one point of a particular poem and transitions into a similar or contrasting point of the second poem back and forth. Write the main point of each paragraph followed by a list of subpoints to emphasize or exemplify your main point. Include your thesis near the end of the paragraph but before the transition into the body.

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Start each paragraph with a topic sentence telling the reader the main point you are discussing. Some transitional devices include: like, similar to, also, unlike, similarly, in the same way, compared to, likewise, again, on the contrary, however, although, yet and conversely. End with a restatement of the thesis and a final thought on the essay that leaves readers thinking long after they finish reading. The images of the two poems are so completely different that they almost demand a different set of rules dealing with their creation. It would be virtually impossible for yeats to deal effectively with the subject matter of the hosting of the sidhe in the same manner as the indian to his love because he is viewing the world from a different perspective for each poem.

Establish a point of comparison for each topic and then describe first one piece and then the other to support the point. Use transitional phrases to separate the two parts of a topic in contrast to, on the other hand, etc. There is little relationship between the characters of the indian to his love and those of the hosting of the sidhe. In the former, yeats deals exclusively with mortals, idealized perhaps, but nonetheless mortals who must deal with the world as mortals: here we will moor our lovely ship/ and wander ever with woven hands, and. These characters are not only mortals, but are anonymous in that they have no personal identities, and there is no representation of them as individuals.

Yeats does, however, remind the readers of the characters’ mortality even while he makes them seem timeless. How when we die our shades will rove tells clearly that those mortals may be in a dream, but even this dream is destined to end. In the hosting of the sidhe, in contrast to the indian and his love, yeats deals with the faeries or little people of ireland: the host is riding from knocknarea and coailte tossing his burning hair,/ and niamh calling away, come away. here there are no insipid mortals, but beings and animals with names and emotions that are as immortal as they are: our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound our breasts are having, our eyes are agleam these are descriptive, life giving images, and yeats chooses to portray his faeries as closer to reality than the mortals of the indian to his love. Yeats obviously wants the reader to identify with the faeries and to feel their passion rather than just to observe them. Continue with additional points of comparison usually at least three points are needed for a complete essay. In the indian to his love, yeats makes no attempt to inject realism into his setting: the island dreams under the dawn and great boughs drop tranquility: the peahens dance on a smooth lawn, a parrot sways upon a tree, raging at his own image in the enameled sea.

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Yeats' descriptions are in flowery metaphoric terms, and all combine to lend a dreamlike quality to the poem. In the hosting of the sidhe, on the other hand, there are none of the qualities of setting present in the indian to his love. Yeats tells the reader exactly where in ireland the action takes place: the host is riding from knockarea/ and over the grave of clooth na bare. Yeats brings his poetry into the countryside of his people and, even though his subjects are not real, except perhaps within the mind, they seem more rooted in reality than his hapless indians. In the indian to his love, yeats makes no attempt to suggest action beyond the most static activity: and wander ever with woven hands,/ murmuring softly lip to lip.

There are no winds, no storms, and no passions on yeats’ island, only tranquility. Yeats chooses every word carefully to reinforce this picture in the minds of the readers. He gives no glimpse of the changes he will make in later poems, including the hosting of the sidhe. In the hosting of the sidhe, quite in contrast to the indian to his love, the entire poem suggests action: the host is riding from knocknarea and our breasts are heaving, our eyes are agleam/ our arms are weaving, our lips are apart. There is nothing within the poem that even remotely suggests peace and tranquility. Both the indian to his love and the hosting of the sidhe are, in their own ways, expressing ideals, but ideals that are so different that they have need of a different language, and yeats meets that need. In the indian to his love, yeats presents the ideal of dreams: mortals in a make believe world.

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He gives a pretty picture in words that is there to see, but it doesn’t reach out. On the other hand, in the hosting of the sidhe, yeats presents the ideal of life: immortals in a real world. The poem reaches out and coaxes: away, come away:/ empty your heart of its mortal dream.

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