Poetry Assignment
In this assignment I will gracefully compare and contrast two short poems. In my selection for the poems, I kept in mind that the two poems needed to have something in common metaphorically or thematically. After many hours of browsing I came upon two poems that contained an ultimately strange connection metaphorically and in content. Interestingly, the two also had numerous differences. The first poem I encountered was "The Sick Rose" written by William Blake in 1794. Soon after, I read "Fog" (1916) by Carl Sandburg and I began to notice an exciting connection filled with various exceptions of chief differences. Although the poems were written more than a century apart from each other, after rereading them numerous times, they left me with an unimaginable amount of thinking and writing ground. The two poems "The Sick Rose" and "Fog" are very much alike in the sense that they both use the introduction of weather and animals to shape the poem and give the reader a sense of displeasure. In "The Sick Rose" the poet introduces a worm and storm and in "Fog" the poet uses the fog and a cat. The subject matter is perhaps similar in these two poems with the fact that both poems embody foul weather that
Perhaps now that I have dropped my argument of "The Sick Rose" embodying a metaphor, it is more obvious to me that the idea and attitude of each poet is quite different. Differences between the sources of life in each poem can be found. In "Fog" there is one source of life, which is the "fog that comes on little cat feet" (570). In "The Sick Rose" there are three sources of life introduced: the rose, the worm, and the storm. Many may argue with the storm being alive but I am more concerned with the literal terms of the poem and less concerned with biological conditions. Within this content various contrasts can be made: the fog is very cloudy and visible while the worm is invisible; the fog is silent and mellow, while the storm moans with great sounds of wind and is very violent; and most important, although I stated earlier the fog blocks out the sun's energy to give life, in the context it does not do anyone harm, while the worm and storm perform a horrendous crime of murdering the rose. The two poems also contrast tremendously in form and style. According to diction, Blake is quite brutish and enclosed with complexity, while Sandburg uses simpler and more delicate words, showing more freedom in his choice of words. Sandburg displays more simplicity in his form and is not worried about rhyme. On the other hand, Blake wants a rhyme on his second and fourth lines of each stanza. Although Sandburg introduces no rhyme, he tends to be more on the meter than Blake who is more jumpy. Furthermore, in "The Sick Rose" the poet speaks to the rose as he tells the rose how it will die, whereas in "Fog" the poet is merely a reporter.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1460
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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