Lit.

405 Comparison Poetry On your test, you will analyzing two poems of your choice because they address the same ideas, themes, images, etc. The goal of the comparison poems is to generate one thesis that addresses the ideas in both poems. Lets look to Gotye and Kimbra for inspiration here: Somebody That I Used to Know, by Goyte and Kimbra Speakers Perception Now and then I think of when we were together Like when you said you felt so happy you could die Told myself that you were right for me But felt so lonely in your company But that was love and it's an ache I still remember You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness Like resignation to the end, always the end So when we found that we could not make sense Well you said that we would still be friends But I'll admit that I was glad it was over But you didn't have to cut me off Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing And I don't even need your love But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough No you didn't have to stoop so low Have your friends collect your records and then change your number I guess that I don't need that though Now you're just somebody that I used to know 1.Looking at the first stanza, what does the speaker remember about the relationship? 1. What new information do we get about the relationship from the womans perspective? The Response Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over. But had me believing it was always something that I'd done. But I don't wanna live that way, reading into every word you say You said that you could let it go, and I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know

2. What is his recollection of the breakup?

2. How does her perspective change our view of the male speaker?

3.Why is he angry now?

This call-and-response genre of poetry has a long and historied tradition. Take a look at the following set of poems:
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, by Christopher Marlowe COME live with me and be my Love, And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and valleys, dale and field, And all the craggy mountains yield. There will we sit upon the rocks And see the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals. There will I make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle. A gown made of the finest wool Which from our pretty lambs we pull, Fair lind slippers for the cold, With buckles of the purest gold. A belt of straw and ivy buds With coral clasps and amber studs: And if these pleasures may thee move, Come live with me and be my Love. Thy silver dishes for thy meat As precious as the gods do eat, Shall on an ivory table be Prepared each day for thee and me. The shepherd swains1 shall dance and sing For thy delight each May-morning: If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me and be my Love.
1. a swain is a young man

The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd, by Sir Walter Raleigh If all the world and love were young, And truth in every Shepherds tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move, To live with thee, and be thy love. Time drives the flocks from field to fold, When Rivers rage and Rocks grow cold, And Philomel1 becometh dumb2, The rest complains of cares to come. The flowers do fade, and wanton3 fields, To wayward winter reckoning yields, A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Is fancys spring, but sorrows fall. Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of Roses, Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten: In folly ripe, in reason rotten. Thy belt of straw and Ivy buds, The Coral clasps and amber studs, All these in me no means can move To come to thee and be thy love. But could youth last, and love still breed, Had joys no date, nor age no need, Then these delights my mind might move To live with thee, and be thy love.

1. Philomel = nightingale Philomel, after being raped and mutilated by her sister's husband, obtains her revenge and is transformed into a nightingale. Because of the violence associated with the myth, the song of the nightingale is often depicted or interpreted as a sorrowful lament. Coincidentally, in nature, the female nightingale is mute and only the male of the species sings. 2. dumb = mute 3. wanton = sexually immodest or promiscuous.

What things does the shepherd promise to give his beloved? What do these promises tell you about the shepherd and his love for the woman. In your opinion, is this a realistic possibility? Why or why not?

What does the nymph imply about the shepherd in the first stanza? How does the nymph characterize all the treasures the shepherd offers? What does her response tell you about her view of life?

How does reading these two poems together and comparing their messages increase the impact of each poem?

This Is Just to Say, by William Carlos Williams I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast. Forgive me; they were delicious so sweet and so cold.

Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams, by Kenneth Koch 1 I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer. I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do and its wooden beams were so inviting. 2 We laughed at the hollyhocks together and then I sprayed them with lye. Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing. 3 I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years. The man who asked for it was shabby and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold. 4 Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg. Forgive me. I was clumsy and I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

Title
Paraphrase Connotation Attitude Shifts Tone

Qs for reflection:
How has the poet spoofed the previous poem? How does he imitate the style of William Carlos Williams? What is the twist that Koch takes? How does he make this poem his own?

Thesis:

I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, by Emily Dickinson I heard a fly buzz when I died; The stillness round my form Was like the stillness in the air Between the heaves of storm. The eyes beside had wrung them dry, And breaths were gathering sure For that last onset, when the king Be witnessed in his power. I willed my keepsakes, signed away What portion of me I Could make assignable,-and then There interposed a fly, With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me; And then the windows failed, and then I could not see to see.

Death, be not proud, by John Donne Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so, For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow, Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee doe goe, Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie. Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well, And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then; One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

Title
Paraphrase Connotation Attitude Shifts Tone

Qs for reflection: How does reading both Dickinsons and Donnes poems together enhance the common theme?

Thesis:

The Fist, by Derek Walcott The fist clenched round my heart loosens a little, and I gasp brightness; but it tightens again. When have I ever not loved the pain of love? But this has moved past love to mania. This has the strong clench of the madman, this is gripping the ledge of unreason, before plunging howling into the abyss. Hold hard then, heart. This way at least you live

Love After Love, by Derek Walcott The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other's welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.

Title
Paraphrase Connotation Attitude Shifts Tone

Qs for reflection Both poems are by the same poet. I the second poem, how does Derek Walcott extend and resolve the theme from the first?

Thesis:

My Papas Waltz by Theodore Roethke The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mothers countenance Could not unfrown itself. The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle. You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt.

Those Winter Sundays by Robert E. Hayden Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. Id wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, hed call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of loves austere1 and lonely offices?

Title
Paraphrase Connotation Attitude Shifts Tone

Qs for reflection: How are the respective fathers portrayed similarly or differently in the two poems? What meaning might you take away from both poems when you read them together?

Thesis: