Comparative Poetry Analysis
Lindsay Propst: Hour 2
Introduction
No two poems are alike, all because authors have a different way they want to express there ideas. Within this writing, I am going to compare two poems that are very different, yet they have a couple things in common. These two poems are, Problems with Hurricanes, by Victor Hernandes Cruz, and Prayer to the Pacific, by Leslie Marmon Silko. The main elements I will be comparing are the authors tone and word choice, figurative language, and structure and form.
Tone & Word Choice
In the poem Problems with Hurricanes the author respects the power of the ocean, based on her tone throughout the poem. For example, in lines 14-17 she states, "Death by drowning has honor. If the wind picked you up and slammed you against a mountain boulder this would not carry shame." The author in that poem also adds a little bit of humor in stanza two that says, "How would your family feel is they had to tell the generations that you got killed by a flying banana." The overall tone with this poem is sad, but the bit of humor that the author added really helps to even out the poem so that is is enjoyable, and not that sad. In other words, he took a sad idea for a poem, but made it happy just by adding one stanza of humor.
Within the poem Prayer to the Pacific the overall tone of the poet is also that they respect nature, but the way that they respect it is varied, because in this poem the poet is treating the ocean like a person by saying a prayer to it. The readers can tell that the author is treating the poem as a prayer because in lines 20, 23, and 25 there are big spaces in between the words, representing a pause. I can tell that the poem's tone is happy because prayer's are meant to be happy like in lines 12-14 where it states, "Squat in the wet sand and speak to the ocean: I return to you turquoise the red coral you sent us."
Figurative Language
The poem Problems with Hurricanes does not include various examples of figurative language throughout the poem, but instead the whole poem is a metaphor. The metaphor represents a comparison between death by fruit, and death by natural causes. The metaphor to me creates an image of a great storm where instead of trees and rocks flying, there is fruit flying instead. In comparison, the poem Prayer to the Pacific there are bunch of examples of figurative language within the poem like personification in lines 10, 12-14, 31, 32, and 22. Some of those examples of personification within the text are, "Clouds that blow across the sand..." and, "Grandfather turtle rolled in the sand..." Also, within the poem, there is a simile in line five that says, "Big as the myth of origin." That simile creates an image of a huge ocean, with all of its history, and that image makes the reader think about what the ocean has been through, and all of it's experiences.
Form & Structure
The two poems Problems with Hurricanes and Prayer to the Pacific both have a lot in common with there structure and form. For example, both of the poems are free-verse, and they both have uneven stanzas within the poems. In the poem Problems with Hurricanes there are varied lengths of lines in the poem, like some lines have one sentence like in lines 13, and 19, where all it says is,"But," and some lines are a lot longer than others. The one word sentences act as a pause, and the pauses give us time to think about what we just read. Also, in the poem Prayer to the Pacific there are random spaces scatted throughout the poem like in lines 8, 20, 22, and 25, and those pauses give the affect of a prayer. Lastly, the poem Prayer to the Pacific is formatted like waves when you turn the poem to the side, do to random indents. The wave format really helps to enhance the idea of being by the ocean and saying a prayer.
Conclution
The two poems Problems with Hurricanes and Prayer to the Pacific are both alike and different when is comes to the authors tone and word choice, figurative language, and structure and form. The way the author's style there poems affects how the readers interpret there poem, and how they understand and interpret their poems. The poem Problems with Hurricanes overall message to me is that in life you need to be more cautious about the beautiful things, and the things that you aren't scared of, rather than the things that you are typically aware of. I think the overall message of Prayer to the Pacific is that the ocean is a beautiful thing, and that you need to respect and take care of it and nature.