Poetry Literary Essay

“We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” by Emily Dickinson and “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost both share the concept of darkness being a struggle, stress, and depression. Every poem uses techniques like P.O.V, imagery, and structure to alter with the feel of the poem. Both poems use these techniques to give the reader a view from different sides.

Both poems show different P.O.Vs in different ways. In “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark”, Dickinson uses the term “we” throughout the poem which gives the reader a sense that the author is referring to a group or more than two people. Maybe even the reader. “We grow accustomed to the Dark- When light is put away”. When using we, it makes us feel like what is happening can be applied to more than one person. It makes us think we are not alone, which can make the poem feel very moody. In “Acquainted with the Night”, Frost uses the term “I” throughout the poem. “I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain- and back in rain”. This makes us think of a person who is stuck in the world of depression and sadness and doesn’t know how to overcome it. Using “I” throughout the poem gives the reader a better interpretation of the person being trapped or stuck and they feel as if they cant escape. The speaker doesn’t show much feeling, he doesn’t share his problems with anybody, that is why he can’t over come depression.

Imagery is an authors craft device used in both poems. Imagery is when metaphors, similes, descriptions, etc. paint a picture in your head of what is happening in the poem. For example in “Acquainted with the Night” the speaker says, “Still at an unearthly height, One luminary clock against the sky.” The word luminary means to be bright or to reflect light. From this quote, we can infer that the “luminary clock” is the moon because the moon can be used to tell time and it very luminary. In “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” , there is a steady use of darkness being depression and stress. And light being a symbol of hope. We can identify this because the tone of the poem is very dark, it is about a group of people entering a life of depression and stress.

The structure of the poems are not so alike. The structure of the poem “Acquainted with the Night” , is in very short 3 burst stanzas. These 3 lined stanzas are very emotionless. They show no feeling; this makes us think that the speaker is trapped in a world of depression and stress and he doesn’t know how to cope with it or how to overcome it. In “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark”, we get the uneasy feeling of stumbling. The author uses hyphens throughout the poem to leave an uneasy feeling. This gives us an uneasy feeling because it is stopping in the middle of a stanza uncomfortably.

In conclusion, both poems share the same authors craft techniques. P.O.V, imagery, and structure to give the poems their very own feeling. These 2 poems can connect to the real world because people are in real life struggles they don’t know how to get out of. People let depression take over their life and they don’t reach out to others for help.

Comparing Poetrey Essay

The poems “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke and “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden  both introduce a working class father and the bond with their children. In both poems the speaker focuses on a memory from when they were a child. In “Those Winter Sundays”, the father is faced with unnoticed love from his children. They take his hard work for granted even when he wakes up early on Sundays, his day to relax, to do chores. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, a memory of the speaker and their father is revealed, we are introduced to a father that is a very hard worker and has a drink of whiskey to settle in after a long day of labor. After that customary routine is over, he waltzes his son to bed, almost every night.

            “Those Winter Sundays” and “My Papas Waltz”  both share the same concept and theme. They’re both about relationships and bonds between a father and his children. Both poems are portrayed as a memory. In “Those Winter Sundays” the speaker looks back on all the chores and hard labor his dad did for him. “Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in a blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.” This quote is saying that even on the father’s day off from work, he still gets up early and works. Because the father had cracked hands, you can infer that he worked hard. No one ever thanked him or appreciated what he did. The speaker took his father’s labor and hard work for granted, until he looked back at the past and realized that he was just showing love, something he never received from his children. The speaker regrets not showing the love his father deserves.

Although there are bonds in both poems, they are not exactly the same kind. In “My Papa’s Waltz” we’re brought into a memory of a usual evening with another hard working father who’s described as loving and caring with “palms caked hard with dirt, and whiskey breath that could make a small boy dizzy.” We can infer that he was also a hard worker as well. The bond between the father and his son is much stronger than the one in “Those Winter Sundays”. The father has a usual routine, when he comes home, he likes to have a whiskey to settle in and relax. It is possible to infer he may have had a little to much to drink since his breath could make a small boy dizzy. Their bonding is in a fun and gentle way, just like waltzing off to bed. “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother’s countenance Could not unfrown itself.” This quote is saying that the father is more of the outgoing parent and wants to have fun with his on since he doesn't see him a lot. The father and son were very much into the waltzing that they didn’t realize the pans fell. This caused the mothers’ frown as she looked at the close bond they had.

In conclusion, both poems share the same theme with having working class families and how they have bonded with their children. Both fathers are similar, they are both very hard workers but, they have very different bonds with their sons. For some families in the world this isn’t a poem to them, it is a reality. Some fathers aren't appreciated for the work they do for their kids and families. The take home message or theme from this poem is that love is shown in different ways and nothing lasts forever so take nothing for granted.