Comparing How Do I Wish To Go? and Let Me Die A Youngman’s Death by

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Comparing How Do I Wish To Go? and Let Me Die A Youngman’s Death by

Roger McGough

‘How do I wish to go’ and ‘Let me die a Youngman’s death’ is showing

an example of two poems of similar content being entirely different.

This essay is going to compare and distinguish those similarities and

differences between these two poems. First, I will talk about the

similarities, then, I will move on to discuss the differences.

An easy first similarity is the contents of both poems. Both poems are

discussing the ways of how people want to die. The similarity is

already observable from the title itself. In ‘How do I wish to go?’ it

is separated into 4 stanzas, in which each stanza is talking about

different situations of people dying. However, ‘Let me die a

Youngman’s Death’ produces 5 stanzas, in which he describes three

situations of when, where and how he wants to die. In addition, it

also mentions some ways of how he doesn’t want to die. Another

similarity is that the poem is set in the 1st person voice. This is

shown throughout the whole of both poems. (‘Flames gripping my skirt’,

‘I achieved my final goal’ from ‘How do I wish to go?’ and ‘when I’m

73’, ‘give me a short back’ from ‘Let me die a Youngman’s death’)

Because the topic of death is very personal and up close, this

signifies that these poems are very personal. It creates an effect so

that the reader would believe the poem even more. If the poem had been

written in 2nd or 3rd voice, the poem may have an atmosphere of

misunderstanding and confusion. A lot of people will be left not

knowing whether the author is talking of good or bad to the person.

The 1st person makes it clearer and more believable. The third and

final similarity of this essay is that there is no rhyme scheme in

both poems. This creates the effect that the poems are not too

organized. This builds up so that the reader will know that a lot of

input and thought was put into the poem and the words weren’t forced

to be there, but instead was chosen wisely by the author. However, it

is also important to note that despite both poems being a bit

disorganized, it is also found that ‘Let me die a Youngman’s death’ is

more disorganized than ‘How do I wish to go’. This will be discussed

in the next paragraph. The above three points were similarities

between the two poems. There are many more similarities that can be

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