Comparing Two Poems

The poems I will talk about, are poems you may or may not have heard before. They are very different from each other. The first poem titled “Starry Night” was written by Anne Sexton a poet of the 20th century. The poem talks about a peaceful death wish by the author herself. The second poem “The Village Blacksmith” was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It talks about a blacksmith who works hard, and has had some rough patches in his life. These poems both talk about different subjects, and are filled with different poetic devices and elements. I picked a few to compare. The elements I chose, focus on showing the differences in the poems. The first comparison is dealing with the way both poems are written. “Starry Night” is written in Free verse. It doesn’t follow a pattern or rhythm of any kind. For example “It moves. They are alive. / Even the moon bulges in its orange irons” (Sexton 7-9). However “The Village Blacksmith” does follow a rhythm. Here is an example from the text:
Under a spreading chestnut tree
The village smithy stands:
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands, (Longfellow 1-4). These lines are a clear indicator of rhythm. …show more content…
The author's tone in “Starry Night” is expressed in the poem when talking about the beautiful night. It says, “Oh starry starry night! This is how / I want to die” (Sexton 5-6). The exclamation point in the line shows passion in the text. And “The Village Blacksmith” has a rhyme scheme, which is shown in this example. “You can hear his bellows blow / You can hear him swing his heavy sledge, / With measured beat and slow” (Longfellow 14-16). The example shows the rhyme scheme which happens to be every other line as a