I have to compare and contrast these two poems:
I Will Put Chaos Into Fourteen Lines
I will put Chaos into fourteen lines
And keep him there; and let him thence escape
If he be lucky; let him twist, and ape
Flood, fire, and demon --- his adroit designs
Will strain to nothing in the strict confines
Of this sweet order, where, in pious rape,
I hold his essence and amorphous shape,
Till he with Order mingles and combines.
Past are the hours, the years of our duress,
His arrogance, our awful servitude:
I have him. He is nothing more nor less
Than something simple not yet understood;
I shall not even force him to confess;
Or answer. I will only make him good.
Edna St Vincent Millay
and
Catch
Two boys uncoached are tossing a poem together,
Overhand, underhand, backhand, sleight of hand, everyhand,
Teasing with attitudes, latitudes, interludes, altitudes,
High, make him fly off the ground for it, low, make him stoop,
Make him scoop it up, make him as-almost-as possible miss it,
Fast, let him sting from it, now, now fool him slowly,
Anything, everything tricky, risky, nonchalant,
Anything under the sun to outwit the prosy,
Over the tree and the long sweet cadence down,
Over his head, make him scramble to pick up the meaning,
And now, like a posy, a pretty one plump in his hands.
Robert Francis
I would appreciate suggestions and your thoughts on how to start this and i thank you for your help.
Well ... what do you think that the two poems have in common? What are the differences? You could start off by talking about the obvious similarities (both are about writing poetry) and then delve into the not-so-obvious (cadence, imagery) and then talk about the differences in the same way (obvious--tone, not-so obvious-- literary devices).
When setting up a compare/contrast essay, there are a couple of ways to approach it. You could do a point-by-point compare and contrast or you could talk about one poem and then the other. It could look like one of the following:
I. Introduction and thesis
II. Discussion of Poem #1
III. Discussion of Poem #2
IV. Comparing both Poems
V. Contrasting both Poems
VI. Conclusion
I. Introduction and Thesis
II. Comparing and Contrasting one Aspect of the Poems (subject matter, for example)
III. Comparing and Contrasting another Aspect of the Poems (tone, perhaps)
IV. Comparing and Contrasting yet another Aspect of the Poems (the amount the poet obscures)
V. Comparing and Contrasting (maybe) one more Aspect (the use of language and literary devices, maybe)
VI. Conclusion
Great advice! You can also start with a cluster of ideas -- what are the points of comparison that come to mind for you? Name 3 points of comparison as fast as you can! Whatever they are, write a paragraph about each.
Give each paragraph a good topic sentence, and then consider them altogether to see what the main theme of your essay is.
You compare these 2 poems, and a certain theme emerges to form your essay!
:-)
Also, google the title of one of the poems with the author's last nae and the word 'analysis'
then do the same for the other poem. Usually there are good analyses online for any poem you can think of.
:-)
