There are many different aspects of both of these poems that are comparable and contrasting. They include many similar themes and the reader can relate to the two poems in some sense as everyone was a young child once. Elements compared and contrasted in this essay includes the theme of longing, time and tones used in the poems “To Any Reader” by Robert Louis Stevenson, and “How to be Gravity” by Jacob Sam-La Rose. A theme is the subject of a piece of writing, a talk, exhibition etc… Longing is stated as a yearning desire. As defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, time is the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present and future regarded as a whole. Tone is defined as follows; a modulation of the voice
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The feeling of longing proves that a motherly instinct is present in both mothers wishing only for their child’s best interests. They are longing for their child, for the sake of their child, and a timing surrounding their child. This is a similarity yet what they are longing for is completely different at the same time. One mother is longing for the past, she is yearning for her child to shrink back down to its younger size so she can relive the memories as that is all she has left – memories of her young child whom is now all grown up. “He has grown up and gone away” (R.L Stevenson line 15). In this poem, “To Any Reader”, the mother is looking back on the past in comparison to the second poem, “How to be Gravity”, where the mother is looking towards the future. The second mother can only see the sufferings her child is putting her through in the present. She wishes for pleasant memories to look back upon, yet she also yearns for every single last inch of her child in the sense of body, mind and soul “There’s a part of everyone that will always escape you at the end.” (Jacob Sam-La Rose lines 13-15). These two poems prove that a person can ache for the same thing in opposite …show more content…
Time proves to be the only true measure of anything as without time, we do not exist. The present seems to be testing the mother in “How to be Gravity” as she is being pushed, pulled and not appreciated but also she knows that with the future comes having to let go of her child nonetheless which she, like every mother, is not looking forward to. On the other hand, she is looking forward to the time when “fleshy arms unwilling to let anything go” (La Rose line 2) ends. In this line the mother is almost claiming that she is being taken advantage of by her child. The child is at a stage where they wish not to be apart from their mother or to carry out tasks on their own. They are at the stage of needing someone, a constant support for them. In “To Any Reader” in contrast to “How to be Gravity”, it is quite obvious that the mother is aching for a younger version of her child “For, long ago” (Stevenson line 13). This mother’s child has clearly grown up and she is attempting to grasp the memories of her darling child when she was their world and she knew everything that her child was up to. This is exactly what the second mother is somewhat dreading – not knowing about everything about her child. They both dread/dreaded the exact same thing but at different
The feeling of longing proves that a motherly instinct is present in both mothers wishing only for their child’s best interests. They are longing for their child, for the sake of their child, and a timing surrounding their child. This is a similarity yet what they are longing for is completely different at the same time. One mother is longing for the past, she is yearning for her child to shrink back down to its younger size so she can relive the memories as that is all she has left – memories of her young child whom is now all grown up. “He has grown up and gone away” (R.L Stevenson line 15). In this poem, “To Any Reader”, the mother is looking back on the past in comparison to the second poem, “How to be Gravity”, where the mother is looking towards the future. The second mother can only see the sufferings her child is putting her through in the present. She wishes for pleasant memories to look back upon, yet she also yearns for every single last inch of her child in the sense of body, mind and soul “There’s a part of everyone that will always escape you at the end.” (Jacob Sam-La Rose lines 13-15). These two poems prove that a person can ache for the same thing in opposite …show more content…
Time proves to be the only true measure of anything as without time, we do not exist. The present seems to be testing the mother in “How to be Gravity” as she is being pushed, pulled and not appreciated but also she knows that with the future comes having to let go of her child nonetheless which she, like every mother, is not looking forward to. On the other hand, she is looking forward to the time when “fleshy arms unwilling to let anything go” (La Rose line 2) ends. In this line the mother is almost claiming that she is being taken advantage of by her child. The child is at a stage where they wish not to be apart from their mother or to carry out tasks on their own. They are at the stage of needing someone, a constant support for them. In “To Any Reader” in contrast to “How to be Gravity”, it is quite obvious that the mother is aching for a younger version of her child “For, long ago” (Stevenson line 13). This mother’s child has clearly grown up and she is attempting to grasp the memories of her darling child when she was their world and she knew everything that her child was up to. This is exactly what the second mother is somewhat dreading – not knowing about everything about her child. They both dread/dreaded the exact same thing but at different