Comparing and Contrasting Poetry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Comparing and Contrasting Poetry - Essay Example ier to access and, in some ways, lighter, and the distance of the poet from the subject creates an atmosphere within which we can observe what is really going on. Both poems illustrate strong emotions: envy and love. The strong iambic trimeter of Papa’s Waltz is made slightly uneven by the extra unstressed syllable on the even lines, suggesting that, perhaps, the steps of the waltz are not exactly even either. However, in Richard Cory, we have iambic pentameter and the quatrain structure rhyming every other line, suggestive of a sonnet, which is only changed by adding the last two lines. The slightly uneven meter of Roethke’s poem creates a certain image of a stumbling dance, while Robinson’s keeps its perfect structure throughout, mirroring the poem’s statement of the perfection of Richard Cory. While there is a lot of imagery and symbolism in Papa’s Waltz, the poem Richard Cory is a symbol in itself, almost a painting in words, representing everything we dream about and everyone we envy. We hear description of things like he was â€Å"imperially slim†, or he â€Å"glittered when he walked†. Robinson uses words that hint of royalty: crown, king and imperially, but contrasts these with the meagerness of saying that â€Å"we† (the narrator’s group) â€Å"went without the meat, and cursed the bread†. Roethke is a bit more subtle with his poem, first allowing us to peek in at the scene, watching the boy and his drunken father stomp about. We know that the household is not rich, and that the father is a manual laborer, or maybe a farmer, from the dirt caked rough hands. The language is plain and driect, using words like â€Å"romped† and â€Å"scraped† while the language in Richard Cory is quite formal, increasing the mood of quiet admiration which bordered upon envy, and increasing the power of the simply stated ending. We suspect that the father in Roethkes poem is, at least a little, abusive. However, there is also a certain relationship shown between the