Compare and contrast two of the three poems below, commenting in detail on notable features of language-use and on the feeling towards the parents developed in the poems:

Vastly differing attitudes toward the authors' parents are developed in "Because" and "My Papa's Waltz". These ideas are expressed in a variety of ways, resulting in many notable contrasts between the pieces. "My Papa's Waltz" discloses a snapshot of one vivid childhood memory, whereas "Because" reveals a broader portrait of many aspects of the author's recollection of his childhood, and of both the parents involved.

The structure alone of "My Papa's Waltz" resembles a formal dance, with four stanzas of four lines, all of similar length. The content, however, gives a mixed view of the dance. The introduction of alcohol in the first line immediately gives the reader the impression that the dance may actually involve a few "missed ... steps." The author, too, is made "dizzy" by the whiskey fumes. The idea of a defined dance is further dispelled by the debris left by the father - son couple: "We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf". Both part

"Because" contains a much more thorough reflection of both parents, and depicts the characters of mother and father to be almost opposites of the characters rendered in "My Papa's Waltz." The mother in "Because" sings rather that frowns: indeed, it is one of her songs that forms the title of the piece. Conversely the father conceals his feelings in a strong contrast to the overly 'affectionate' papa of "My Papa's Waltz." It seems to be due to this tendency that whilst granted the "father and mother never quarrelled", they also never showed "a moment's joy in one another." The author feels that this was harder on the mother "who had more generous feeling to express" than the father who sought to control his Irish blood, especially against such stereotypically Irish fecklessnesses as drinking and praying. The author then describes just how tightly the father has bottled his emotions, likening him to lifeless "stone" or "creaking wood," appealing to the reader's auditory senses, a device continued in the next stanza with the onomatopoeic "switching" of the man's lips, which once again is lifeless, and continues the thought of the man trying to control his feeling like a machine. The author however, sees this attempt to fight "spontaneous impulse" as a "weakness" in itself.

This incident permanently changed the impressionable child: "home the lesson went: my tenderness thenceforth escaped detection." The child thenceforth hides his emotion in a similar manner to the father.

The two pieces reveal very different aspects of childhood. The broader picture of childhood in "Because" delves much more deeply into emotions, past and present, which were first awakened early in childhood. The shorter, yet still powerful "My Papa's Waltz" concentrates on one incident, but uses it to perhaps symbolise wh

Some common words found in the essay are:
Papa's Waltz, English Compare, papa's waltz, Waltz Vastly, feels own, caked hard dirt, palm caked hard, parents developed, father mother, hard dirt, caked hard, author feels, domestic violence, palm caked,
Approximate Word count = 1215
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)