Poetry+Comparison

My two chosen poems
 * Summer

I'm in the back garden, dead-heading fuchsias at summer's end. Around me are poppies and the perfume of stargazer lilies. I'm thinking of how this summer of death has so quickly passed. My friend's father, dead suddenly at his desk.

Another friend's mother with cancer of the pancreas, stopped eating, died with grace. My mother. And her slow dying. Her mind gone, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">she sleeps all day.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Imagines, when awake, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">she's on a cruise ship. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Music and dancing <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Under the stars. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Stargazer lilies everywhere. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Perhaps she could waltz. Not this summer. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Not this. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summer. || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sleep

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The evening hangs beneath the moon <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A silver thread on darkened dune <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">with closing eyes and resting head <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">i know that sleep is coming soon

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Upon my pillow, safe in bed <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a thousand pictures fill my head <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I cannot sleep my minds a flight <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And yet my limbs seem made of lead

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If there are noises in the night <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A frightening shadow, flickering light <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Then I surrender unto sleep

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Where clouds of dreams give second sight

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What dreams may come both dark and deep

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Of flying wings and soaring leap

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As I surrender unto sleep <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As I surrender unto sleep ||

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I chose these two poems because they both talk about death. In Summer, death is addressed literally and directly, where in Sleep, death is addressed as sleep, which is a euphemism. The main difference between the two poems is that in Sleep, The poem is told from the 1st person point of view, while in Summer, it is told from a third person point of view.The second difference is that the mood is different. In Summer, the mood is dreary and depressing because many of the narrator’s loved ones die. In Sleep, the mood is calm and peaceful, as if the person was certain he would go to heaven. The theme from the two poems are similar, since they both speak of death, but there are significant differences. In Summer, the theme is “All good things must come to an end” because it talks about the dead people’s good, fun past lives, and in Sleep, the theme is “The inevitable cannot be avoided”.