Comparative analysis of poem structure and meaning

¶ … Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound and My Father's Waltz by Theodore Roethke

Ezra Pound's poem In the Station of the Metro and Theodore Roethke's poem My Father's Waltz both reflect the darker side of human nature. Though these works paint a very different picture, they each allude to the desperate conditions that we all face from time to time as human beings.

Pound's poem compares faces in the crowd at the metro to apparitions or ghosts, like petals on a wet black bough. The imagery evokes dark feelings of foreboding and death. It may be interpreted as a reminder that we are all born only to face the same inevitable end. The poem is constructed much like a Japanese haiku as is of only three lines. This simplicity adds to the poem's texture and adds power to the message. The reader is left to interpret the intent of the poem, and presumably each will develop their own understanding based on personal experiences.

Roethke's poem is a sad sustained condemnation of his abusive relationship with alcoholic father from the viewpoint of a child. The poem speaks of being beaten on the head, painfully dragged around by the wrist, and "waltzed" off to bed. It also alludes to his mother's tacit approval of this behavior by refusing to intervene. This poem is constructed in four stanzas each of four lines with an a, b, a b, rhyme scheme. This simple format adds to the innocents of the poem. The irony of this poem is that despite the ill treatment of his father the boy still "clings" to him and hangs on like "death."

Both Pound's and Roethke's poems deal with death and underscore the quiet desperation that dominates the lives of ordinary people. Both poems address difficult subject matter that most of us avoid contemplating on a regular basis.

Wild Nights -- Wild Nights by Emily Dickinson and Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare

Emily Dickinson's poem Wild Nights -- Wild Nights and William Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 both take a look at love from different perspectives. Dickinson's poem is a portrayal of the wild passionate raw love that is fueled by desire and lust. Shakespeare's poem is a look at love from the view of an older man who is involved with a presumably younger woman, and the realities that by the difference in age their time together is short.

Dickinson uses language that evokes the erotic. The poem speaks of love, "futile the winds to a heart in port," meaning the narrator's heart is taken. The passion is expressed with the metaphor "Might I but moor -- Tonight -- In thee!" alluding to the irony of this poem fact that the speaker wishes to make love. The tone of the poem reveals a young woman who is madly, wildly in love and filled with desire. The irony of this poem is that the couple is not together, the man is somewhere else and the woman is imagining the joy of being with him. We have no idea of how the intended feels.