Five Flights Up Compare And Contrast

Everyone behaves differently in the morning. Some may wake up energetic waiting to start the new day while others wake up dreary. “Five A.M.” by William Stafford depicts a speaker walking down a familiar street and enjoying the early morning. “Five Flights Up” by Elizabeth Bishop is another poem that takes place in the morning; however, the speaker in this poem is unhappy. “Five A.M.” and “Five Flights Up” both reflect on the early morning surroundings, but they use different techniques to show the different mindset of the speaker in each poem. “Five A.M” and “Five Flights Up” both occur in the early morning, but they differ greatly in content. The poem starts out with the speaker in a neighborhood passing by a particular house. The speaker …show more content…
Stafford writes, “the early morning breathes” in the first line and that the “air doesn’t stir” in the last line. These lines show the calmness of the morning. In addition, these lines show that the speaker’s head is clear with no worries. There is alliteration in line seven where the speakers says that his or her “arms alternate.” The repetition of the beginning “a” sound makes the action seem ordinary. This shows that the speaker loves his morning walk. There is only one rhetorical question in this poem, but this one question changes the entire course of the speaker’s mind. Before the speaker asks, “Where are my troubles?” in line eight, the speakers thought are normal. After this thought, however, the speakers thoughts become more philosophical. It is almost as if the speaker does not believe in the fact that he or she does not have any troubles. Stafford also uses symbolism. Stafford uses an uphill curve to symbolize the struggle a day brings. The rain mentioned at the very end of the poem symbolizes the speaker’s troubles dripping away after the walk. The morning walk makes everything that follows in the day easier to deal