The Curious Case of Vignettes and Poems

Vignettes and Poems share similarities and differences like toast and bread. Poems use special words and rhymes while vignettes use specific traits when they explore setting or theme. The book, “A House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and the poem, “Hope is a thing with feathers” by Emily Dickenson demonstrate these similarities and differences between poetry and vignettes. Overall, both poetry and vignettes are meant to convey the author’s emotions, but may do so in different ways.

Nerveless, the author of the vignette, “House on Mango Street” writes, “We didn’t always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor” (Cisneros 3). The quote describes the main character’s past and uses several traits of the character to bring out the setting. Some traits can be seen by how she is describing her past in a slightly depressed tone, which is an indication she doesn’t enjoy living where she currently is. Also the character says she has moved more than once, hinting that she doesn’t have a lot of friends. From all these indications we can conclude that the main character lives in a small house in a bad neighborhood, also she is slightly depressed. The author has centered all these indications on the character’s mood to help us, the reader, understand the setting better, which is Mango Street, in this vignette. However, as it appears in the poem, “Hope is a thing with feathers” by Emily Dickenson,

“That perches in the soul-

And sings the tune without the words-

And never stops-at-all” (2-4).

The quote is about hope and the authors feelings on it. When she writes about hope, she uses several unique words to bring out the poems setting. One technique used by her is slant rhyme to enhance the reader’s vi...

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... vignettes share commonalities between each other when introducing literary elements such as theme or setting but have distinct traits that differentiate one from another.

Showcasing mood or using a figure of speech is one way both vignettes and poems are similar. One way they are different is how they present their similarities, vignettes focus on one main trait while poems focus on the words used. The book, “A House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and the poem, “Hope is a thing with feathers” by Emily Dickenson demonstrate these similarities and differences between poetry and vignettes. All in all, vignettes and poems have their similarities and differences like toast and bread.

Works Cited

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. Vintage Books: New York. 1984. Print

"Hope" is the thing with feathers”. Poetry Foudation. 2014. Web. March 10, 2014.