Comparing House On Mango Street And Night Madness Poem

Novels and poetry. Both seem very different from one another. One is long, one is short. Novels have plot and poems have feelings. Though some may disagree with those statements, it is easy to tell key differences. Oftentimes poems have more figurative language and are more focused on either very broad or very specific topics in life. Sandra Cisneros is one person who can write a novel using stereotypically poetic themes. Using both her novel The House on Mango Street and her poem, “Night Madness Poem” it can be seen that she uses poetic themes in all chapters and stanzas. Those poetic themes eloquently or blatantly show slices of her life portrayed through Esperanza and the narrator of her poem. In some chapters, …show more content…
In some cases this is true, with most sentences being simple, with very little connecting punctuation in The House on Mango Street. In “Night Madness Poem” there are commas and hyphens to connect or disconnect words and sentences. This indicates that the narrator would be older, or at least be very good at stringing together long and mature thoughts. It is interesting, however, that the narrator of “Night Madness Poem” seems older, yet more carefree than Esperanza. This is because Esperanza is frequently reminded that she needs to come back to Mango Street (Cisneros, 110, 105) eventually and sees this as almost a duty. In the poem the third and fourth stanzas say “/It's no secret. I'm here. Under a circle of light. The light always on / Resisting a glass, an easy cigar. The kind who reels the twilight sky. Swoop circling./ I'm a witch woman high/ on tobacco and holy water.” This shows an attitude that is more carefree, able to have an “easy cigar”. Also, talk of drinking and smoking points to an older narrator, seeing as those topics are mature and illegal for a young