Think about these questions and considerations as you build an answer to the comparison question.
- Who is speaking in each poem and where are they speaking from? Look at the use of tense and consider why they are writing the poem from this POV( point of view).
- How are the speaker’s views similar and how are their attitudes different?
- Does one poem seem more positive or affirmative than the other? Why? Think about their words choices and the type of figurative language used.
- Are they both focusing on the same aspect of the theme or have they chosen to focus on another, different aspect?
- Think about the tone of each poem. Is the tone different in each poem? Why? How does this affect your understanding of each poem?
- Consider your relationship to the poems. Are you as a reader, sympathetic to the predicament of each speaker or is your relationship different? More or less intimate?
- Always think about the implications of the title in any poem. Expectations are generated through the choice of a title. Are these expectations fulfilled or surprised?
- Choose around four moments in each poem that are crucial to your understanding. Pick out any strange vocabulary or imagery as the strange affects the meaning more substantially perhaps than anything else and is always pivotal.
- Are the forms of each poem similar or different and how does this choice of form function with the subject matter?
Compared to writing on a piece of prose, sometimes when studying a poem I find it hard to now where to start, and your suggestions look really helpful, with many useful and thoughtful ways to begin to look at what a poece of poetry might be about. Thanks