POEM+COMPARISON


 * 4. 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, 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;">12. 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: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Comparing Poems **__ __**<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Structure: **__ <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The structures of both poems are similar because they each have separate verses, and the end of the poem repeats. Each poem ends strong with a sentence that helps one to understand what the entire poem's theme was. However the structure of the poems do differ because the poem "sleep," has little punctuation when "summer" has a lot of punctuation especially near the end of the poem. The structures also differ because "sleep" rhymes whereas "summer" does not. "Sleep" has many stanzas but "summer" only has three stanzas.

__**<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Meaning: **__ <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The meaning in both poems are similar because they both relate to death and the sadness that comes with it. One explains how death happens and the feeling of death, where the other explains about losing someone you love very much. The meaning is somehow hidden more in "sleep" though because the first time you read it, you believe it is about sleep and not death, but when you read " summer" it is very obvious that the poem has something to do with losing loved ones. The meaning behind both poems talks about death as pain though, because whether it is someone you loved or yourself dying, there is always pain in death. I think that that is what both poems are somewhat about.

__**<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Poetic Devices: **__ There is plenty of rhyme in "sleep" and plenty of symbols in "summer." The poem "sleep" rhymes sometimes randomly with "dune, soon, moon." Summer however, places the symbols very carefully. When it says "Around me are poppies," I think it's using that as a symbol of death because the poppy represents remembrance day and flanders fields where soldiers are buried. Both poems use many poetic devices to create imagery, that fills your mind with unhappy thoughts. The poems use poetic devices to create an effect and mood of sadness, when the reader looks at them. The poetic devices help each poem realize the sadness that the author is trying to portray, because they use descriptive language and sometimes use euphemisms which you can understand mean death. Without the poetic devices in each poem, we would not understand the meaning or themes of the poems.