Turner, Layne 1

McLeod Turner, Carney Layne

English IB

Mr. Anderson

5/29/10

Comparing and Contrasting

“A Narrow Fellow in the Grass”
And
“Southbound on the Freeway”

Poetry, although a form of literature that can be difficult to comprehend, has many

different elements. Poetic authors use these elements in both similar and different ways as other

poets. The poem is impacted greatly depending on how the author uses the elements. To show

this we have chosen the poems “Southbound on the Freeway” written by May Swenson in 1963,

and “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” by Emily Dickenson in 1865 to compare and contrast. The

differences in these poems reside in their usage of figures of speech, tone, meter, and imagery.

The similarities are in the way they exercise the elements of alliteration, and onomatopoeia.

First off, the poems “Southbound on the Freeway” and “The Narrow Fellow in The

Grass” Both use imagery the same way. For example, they both use the senses to compliment

imagery by utilizing touch, and sight. In May Swenson’s poem, it uses touch in line 23: “Those

soft shapes,” and in Emily Dickinson’s poem, we see the usage of touch in line 10: “A floor to

cool for corn.” These lines of imagery gives us a physical feeling of what Dickinson and

Swenson were feeling when they wrote their poems; thus transferring the same feeling to us

while we read. This is clearly an example of touch sensory because, Swenson says “Those soft

shapes” and we all know that we can only experience what soft is if we touch it! This is the same

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for Dickinson’s poem “A floor to cool for corn.” We all know what “cool” feels like because we

have felt cool; Thus proving the similarities of sensory details between these two poems.

One way in which “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” and “Southbound on the Freeway”

are different from each other is in their usage of the element figures of speech (FOS). In

Dickinson’s poem an example of FOS is in line 5: “The grass divides as with a comb.” In

Swenson’s poem the example of FOS is on line 11: “they have four eyes.” In Dickinson’s poem

when it says “The grass divides as with a comb” this helps you visualize what is going on. It tells

you whatever it is dividing the grass is not some wild troll blundering through the grass because

when most people think of someone combing something they think of the silent comb slowly

brushing hair, so it isn’t something loud and boisterous. In Swenson's poem we see that the

person is examining things. This gives us as readers the same feeling the person has in the poem

—the feeling of learning. In “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” FOS is used to show us what is

happening and in “Southbound on the Freeway” FOS is used to help us feel the poem.

Therefore the use of FOS is different from one to the other.

Another thing that is different in both poems is the use of rhythm. “Southbound on the

Freeway” consists of thirteen stanzas of two lines each. It is written in free verse, meaning that

there is no consistent rhyme scheme or rhythm pattern. The short stanzas give the poem a look of

simplicity, suitable for children’s poetry because it requires less attention span. After the first

stanza, the poem becomes a monologue by the “tourist from Orbitville,” giving the tourist’s

observations of life on earth’s freeways. The poem frequently uses the technique of enjambment,

placing significant words instead of punctuation at the ends of lines, to draw attention to those

words. The monologue is structured in small, simple words, using familiar images and

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sometimes using slang. “The Narrow Fellow in the Grass” is written in iambic tetrameter. The

rhythm in the first stanza captures the movement of the snake and the speaker’s reaction to it.

The first two lines are enjambed creating a smoothly flowing line of seven iambic feet. The

rhythm of this line captures the smooth flowing movement of the snake as it moves through the

grass. This rhythm is contrasted with the short, choppy phrases of the next two lines which

mirror the speaker’s reaction to the snake. The inverted sentence pattern of the last line gives

emphasis to the suddenness of the snake’s appearance. The repetition of the “s” sound captures

the sound of the snake while the repetition of the long “o” sound and the “no” sound reveal the

speaker’s negative reaction. Finally, the half rhyme between “rides” and “is” emphasizes the “s”

sound of the snake rather than the speaker’s completed thought, an effect that emphasizes the

speaker’s startled reaction. The rhythm of this first stanza establishes the contrast between the

“denotative” snake and the speaker’s “connotative” snake. Southbound on the Freeway’s”

rhythm is used to make it an easier and lighthearted read, while “A Narrow Fellow in the

Grass’s” rhythm is used to help you once again see the poem.

Another difference in these poems is in their use of tone. Although tone can’t be decided

by any formal procedure, tone must be found by a reader’s interpretation. In “Southbound on the

Freeway” we believe that the tone is that of a confused and uncertain style. We can perceive this

by reading a few lines such as 25 and 26: “the hard bodies—are they their guts or their brains.”

In “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” we see that there is a curious and scared tone. This is in

lines 21-24. “But never met this fellow, attended or alone, with out tighter breathing, and zero at

the bone.” The fact that the narrator has never seen this thing proves that the author wishes for

that of a curious tone. The words “tighter breathing” and Zero at the bone” tells us it has a

frightened tone. In “Southbound on the Freeway”, because there is question of whether the parts

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are this things guts or brains verifies that there is some confusion with the narrator.

Unsurprisingly these differences give these poems a unique and interesting read.

A fun and entertaining stem of poetry writing is onomatopoeia. Both poems, “A Narrow

Fellow in the Grass” and Southbound on the Freeway" use onomatopoeia in the same way. In

“Southbound on the Freeway” in line 21: “They all hiss as they glide,” And in “A Narrow Fellow

in the grass on line13: “Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash.” In both poems the use

onomatopoeia to give you sensory details; in “Southbound on the freeway” it uses it to help you

hear, and in “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” it uses it to help you see the poem.

The last example of a difference in elements used is the meter in which these poems were

written. First, in Swenson’s poem we see that it is a free verse poem, although most lines tend to

be more Anapestic than anything. This gives the reader an easy read. But in Dickinson’s poem it

is true that it is written in a tetrameter were there is unstressed stressed syllable. This meter

helps us visualize the snakes movements. These differences in elements are differences that give

them a unique feel to it.

These poems are very different and, at the same time, very alike in their ability to help us

visualize the senses their use of FOS, their utilization of alliteration making the poetry come

alive, the tone that makes the poetry unique and emotional, onomatopoeia—the word that

sounds like what it is, and meter, the thing that keeps the poetry organized and consistent.it is

through elements like these, and many others, that we can see that poems both alike and

different.

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Dickinson, Emily. “The Narrow Fellow in the Grass.” Elements of Literature: Third Course.

Ed. Kathleen Daniel. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003.

Swenson, May. “Southbound on the Freeway.” Elements of Literature: Third Course.

Ed. Kathleen Daniel. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003.

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