Comparative Poetry Anaysis
Name: Wesley Biel Hour: 6
Introduction
In this essay I will show how the two poems Problems with Hurricanes and Prayer to the Pacific put figurative language in the poem, the tone and word choice, and the structure and form of the two poems will also be discused.
Tone and word choice
In the poem Problems with Hurricanes the author thinks that drowning and getting slammed against a mountain boulder are both honorable ways of dying, but dying by a flying banana is a weird and funny way to die. Like in lines (16-21) it said," If you got slammed against a mountain boulder. This should not carry shame. But to suffer a mango smashing your skull is a ultimate disgrace." His word choices make the poem funny, like when he said," Killed by a flying banana." And in the other poem Prayer to the Pacific the author wants us to respect the ocean and treat it like a human too. She puts gaps in lines 7, 20, 22,& 25 so we read the line slow and carefully, almost like a prayer. The word choices make the story calm. Like in line 10 when it said," Where ocean herself was born." That to me sounds calm and peaceful.
Figurative Language
The poem Problems with Hurricanes uses a lot of imagery.Like when she said," Killed by a flying banana." That makes me imagine a person person about to get hit by a flying banana. This makes the poem have some humor in it so we keep reading the poem. And in the other poem Prayer to the Pacific the author used a lot of personification. Like when she said," Carried by giant sea turtles." In line 18. This meant that the Indians are being carried across the ocean on the turtles. This was one of the myths she said. This makes me think of a Indian standing on a turtle in the middle of the ocean.
Form and structure
In the poem problems with hurricanes the lines and stanzas are not the same length. Also the poem has no rhyming. So you read it like a story and not like a poem. And in the poem Prayer to the Pacific the lines are not the same length. The lines also have gaps in them. They are there because the author wants us to slow down and read the poem more carefully and take in all of the information.
Conclusion
That is how the author uses form and structure, tone and word choice, and figurative language. The authors style can effect the poem because if the author puts gaps in the poem it will slow the reader's speed and help us understand what we just read. For the poem Problems with Hurricanes the main point is watch out for innocent things and for the poem Prayer to the Pacific the main point was treat the ocean like a human being. So watch out for those bananas.