The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks and The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy

To provide a successful comparison of any two things, one must be able to comprehend all aspects of the articles in question. Many forms of literature are easily comparable due to the very nature of an author transcribing a piece of history or thought directly to paper; however, poetry is not one of these afore mentioned forms of literature so easily compared. This is because poetry itself is as emotionally driven, as it is ambiguous. With there being no definitive set of rules, dictating what is or is not poetry, attention to detail is paramount in fully understanding the relationships between the poems. The utilization of three different poems, by different authors, and all contained in a similar category, allows for a more broad range of analysis; moreover, the stark differences, as well as the shared commonalities between them, become more evident with a comparison of more than two works of an author or authors. The works of poetry in this comparison are “The Mother,” by Gwendolyn Brooks; “The Man He Killed,” by Thomas Hardy; and “Ballad of Birmingham,” by Dudley Randall. At first glance, each of these poems seems to have very little in common with one another. On one hand, they are unique to each specific poem unto itself. On the other hand, these three pieces of poetry are alike in many ways. The analysis of each poem in regards to the theme presented, tone being communicated, imagery used, and the rhyme scheme employed, exposes the coexistence of similarities and differences between the three poems.

The themes between the poems are very similar, if not identical. The floating sense of guilt by the speaker is overwhelming in each of these poems. In “The Mother,” the speaker is the mother herself, who has authorized the rem...

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...s that of the internal struggles the speaker has and the understanding of those struggles by the audience. The rhyme scheme, though all used one, are completely different and show little, if any, sign of being similar. The theme is main adhesive as to what binds these three great works together, in that, the guilt and regret felt by the speaker is so immense, signaling to the audience that the poems have a great bit in common, though, through each one’s differences, they are unique unto themselves.

Works Cited

Charters, Ann, and Samuel B. Charters eds. Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2013. Print.

Brooks, Gwendolyn. “The Mother.” Charters and Charters 942-943.

Hardy, Thomas. “The Man He Killed.” Charters and Charters 1064.

Randall, Dudley. “Ballad of Birmingham.” Charters and Charters 1048-1049.