Poetry+Comparison

Carving A Name and Poetry Comparison December 14, 2011
 * 433 words (not including the poems only the three paragraphs.)**

2. Carving A Name

I wrote my name upon the sand, And trusted it would stand for aye; But, soon, alas! the refluent sea Had washed my feeble lines away.

I carved my name upon the wood, And, after years, returned again; I missed the shadow of the tree That stretched of old upon the plain.

To solid marble next, my name I gave as a perpetual trust; An earthquake rent it to its base, And now it lies, o'erlaid with dust.

All these have failed. In wiser mood I turn and ask myself, "What then?" If I would have my name endure, I'll write it on the hearts of men,

In characters of living light, Of kindly deeds and actions wrought. And these, beyond the touch of time, Shall live immortal as my thought.

15. Realization

I am a different man One who died and was reborn A boy man Haunted by childhood A survivor A wiry man Full of rage One with little choice Wrestling demons Welded to irony A kid minus a father A guy without dreams A hermit A hobbit A hungry man Cornered, imprisoned, beaten A fearful man A lost soul Plagued by personalities A living blank Humiliated but stubborn A disregarded man A walker, a dancer, a runner An impatient man A merciless victim A religious man A singer of the heart An indignant man labeled man Buried alive A Neanderthal An android A metaphorical man A disabled man A violent man A dictator at war with wisdom A man condemned to victory

Realization and Carving A Name have similarities and differences to each other, both of which will be pointed out in the following paragraphs. In Carving A Name, the author uses the pronoun "I" quite often. This is the same as in Realization, where the author is also the person whose point of view it is from. The authors wrote the poems from their point of view because they are giving a lesson, on themselves or their experiences. In the case of Realization, the author is telling us who he is as a person. In Carving a name the author is telling us his life experiences and how to avoid the mistakes he made (if you will have have you names endure you must write it on the hearts of men.) The structures of the two poems are different, yet they are both from the same point of view.

In Carving A Name, the structure is two lines about his attempts at "carving a name," which is a metaphor for "making a name for yourself, and then two lines about how his attempts failed. Eventually he comes to the realization that he must make his mark by being memorable, whereas the conclusion of Realization is that he is "a man condemned to victory." The author is Realization is not making a point or telling a life lesson, but describing himself. The structure of Realization is based around who he is (a ___ man, a ___ man, where the first and second are oxymorons of each other.) The other major structure difference is the use of full sentances/phrases. Carving A Name uses a multi-word phrase, some of which are actually entire senences. Realization uses short two or three word phrases, some of which are also sentences, but are much shorter, obvious, and to the point.

Other differences are the aspect of contrasting imagery. The Realization has lots of this, whereas Carving A Name does not. Carving A Name does however, have rhythm and rhyme, which Realization has little to none of and not in any particular rhyme scheme. Lots of emotional imagery is present in Realization (buried alive, wrestling demons, a kid minus a father,) but Carving A Name only has basic imagery (the refluent sea washed my feeble lines away, shadow of the tree that stretched the old upon the plain.) Both poems have plenty of irony, however, except Realization uses oxymorons more than plain irony (a disabled man, a violent man, a fearful man, a boy man.) Carving a name is ironic in its self because he spent so long trying to "carve his name" when really all he had to do was to do memorable things for people and it was really that easy. In conclusion, Carving a name and Realization have both similarities and differences, in structure and poetic devices.