Compare, contrast and contextualize Wallace Stevens, "Study of Two Pears" and Li Young-Lee, "Persimmons".
Compare, contrast and contextualize Wallace Stevens, "Study of Two Pears" and Li Young-Lee, "Persimmons".
(1) Wallace Stevens was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on October 2, 1879, and became one the most accomplished poets of his era. His modernist ideology coincides with colleagues such as T.S. Elliot and Ezra Pound. In his life Stevens wrote many poems, collected in over ten major publications, and won the Pulitzer price in 1955 for his works. In his poem Study of Two Pears' Stevens describes two pears not only how they are, but at the same time as they are seen. Li-Young Lee was born in 1957 in Djakarta, Indonesia, son of parents with opposing backgrounds. After fleeing Indonesia through Hong Kong to the United States, Lee attended several Universities. His work is influenced by his childhood, his family history and individualism. His poem Persimmons' is about himself growing up in the United States, trying to adapt to this new country and it culture. But also the relationship with his father plays a role.
(2) Both poems are about fruit. However, the fruit is metaphorical for different views people can have on the same object or subject. In both poems, the pieces of fruit are described with great detail. The shape, color and taste are all mentioned. In terms of format there are too similarities that can be found. Stevens and Lee both use stanzas that do not rhyme. Furthermore, both poems contain simple sentences, not long phrases. Both poems seem - one more than the other - to talk about a painting. "Citrons, oranges and greens", and "are blobs on the green cloth", in Study of Two Pears', suggesting a still life. In Persimmons' "three paintings by my father", talking about his fathers paintings.
(3) Various differences between the two poems can also be described. Stevens wrote his poem in 1942. At that time the world is at war against Nazism, and many believe that the free world did far too little to stop Hitler's sick philosophies from spreading. Although Stevens had little interest in politics, it could explain his attempt to teach his readers not to rely on one's own filling in of certain facts, such as upcoming Nazism, or just pears. Persimmons' was written in 1986, when the Cold War was still present.
Both poems share many things in common. The first being the obvious theme of major decision making and choosing the best path, so that life doesn't pass you by. Blanche obviously had Robert Frost's famous poem sitting beside her when she wrote her own rendition of the poem 21 years after Frost's death. Most of the stanzas in each poem match up with one another. Similar words are used as well, such as in the first stanza of each poem "and be one traveler, long I stood"(Frost), and "and mulling it over, long she stood."(Blanche) Both of these lines are undoubtedly similar, and they are both part of a five line stanza that rhymes the ending words of two lines and three lines to each other.
This does not make up for the lack of other poetic elements, and the simplicity of the writing. The differences between the two pieces is still very vass. The two pieces have two totally different objectives, which makes them have different writing styles. Claire Dederer writes “Song lyrics do a fine imitation of poetry, but they’re not quite the same thing. Lyrics are a vessel, designed to hold a singer’s voice.
The imagery used in the two poems is very similar at times. Both authors describe to the readers a picturesque view of nature, like plants blooming in the springs. Proof of this is found in “Lone Bather'; : “ is plant with lilies bursting from its heels.'; Similarly, in “The Swimmer'; the first
To begin, there are many ways that the two pieces of writing listed above are very similar and resemble each other and Sarah Orne Jewett’s writing style. Some ways are more obvious than others such as the fact that both of the main focuses in these writing pieces are birds. For as long as we can remember birds have symbolized freedom, beauty, and hope for the things that we cannot see. In “The White Heron”, the white heron represents beauty, originality, and the freedom of evading the man who wants
The poetry by these two poets creates several different images, both overall, each with a different goal, have achieved their purposes. Though from slightly different times, they can both be recognized and appreciated as poets who did not fear the outside, and were willing to put themselves out there to create both truth and beauty.
Much of Li-Young Lee’s Poetry revolves around his memory and circles back to the present. He contemplates, and through focusing on one particular incident touches upon the insecurities he felt as an immigrant in the United States, his love for his mother, his reverence for the man his father is and his grief over the imminent loss of his father’s faculties and eventually his life. Though the text is rather simple and is written in prose, this poem is extremely raw and full of emotion, and this can be seen in the literary devices Lee uses. Even the simplicity of Lee’s language contributes to the poem’s sense of passion, heartache, and inspection of the universal. Lee fosters a Monist philosophy, meaning he believes that all things are connected
When considering the structure of the poems, they are similar in that they are both written loosely in iambic pentameter. Also, they both have a notable structured rhyme scheme.
Despite their different messages, both poems share the same topic of the hardships that surround the American Dream and use negatively connotated diction associated
Robert Frost and Edgar Allen Poe two amazing poets, who created many well written poems, for instance “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening”, by Robert Frost and “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe. These two poems have many differences and similarities between them. A big difference between Frost and Poe is there back ground but this is also a similarity, how they took their real life situations and turned them into poetry. Then, their life situations made their tone in “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “The Raven” completely different. But in these two poems there is a meaning behind them and the meanings are similar. Finally, a difference and similarity
Throughout the poem Stevens uses eloquent imagery to describe the paradise always present in the natural world. The "late coffee and oranges in a sunny chair", "the pungent oranges and bright, green wings" both show the paradise that we can posses everyday on Earth. For the woman, these images also "dissipate the holy hush of ancient sacrifice." "She dreams a little, and she feels the dark encroachment of that old catastrophe." His imagery is used to show that although she is genuinely enjoying these beautiful things, there is still underlying spiritual anxiety. The statements the woman makes about the death of Jesus are negative, yet they are still in her mind and are interrupting her dreams.
Both poems where written in the Anglo-Saxton era in Old English and later translated into English. As well as both poems being written in the same time period, they are both elegiac poems, meaning they are poignant and mournful.
Both poets present readers with characters questioning the apparent transience of nature. Whitman's young girl weeps to see the black "burial-clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all," (line 12) just as Stevens' young woman is saddened "when the birds are gone, and their warm fields/Return no more" (lines 49-50). These characters, unable to grasp the entirely of the cycle of mortality, are dismayed by earthly loss they continually observe.
There are plenty of differences in these two poems. The most notable contrasts would be imagery and atmosphere. "Sight" and "The Fog" both provide clear but different images. "Sight" presented vivid colours and picturesque imagery by the generous usage of similes and metaphors. Apples were compared to the grass of Paradise and oranges to Tyre's sunsets.
Robert Frost is known for his poems about nature, he writes about trees, flowers, and animals. This is a common misconception, Robert Frost is more than someone who writes a happy poem about nature. The elements of nature he uses are symbolic of something more, something darker, and something that needs close attention to be discovered. Flowers might not always represent beauty in Robert Frost’s poetry. Symbolism is present in every line of the nature’s poet’s poems. The everyday objects present in his poems provide the reader an alternative perspective of the world. Robert Frost uses all the elements of poetry to describe the darker side of nature. After analyzing the Poem Mending Wall and After Apple Picking it is clear that nature plays a dark and destructive role for Robert Frost. This dark side of Frost’s poetry could have been inspired from the hard life he lived.
Also the second poem shows the mermaid as more naïve than the first poem. Overall the comparison can be made that the drunken men are representative of mankind and their destructive nature; whereas, the mermaid is nature, in all of its